Papua's Internet May Gradually Return to Normal Soon: Kominfo
Translator
Ricky Mohammad Nugraha
Editor
Markus Wisnu Murti
Senin, 2 September 2019 15:54 WIB
The alliance of SAFEnet stages a solidarity action in front of the Communication and Information Ministry building on Jl. Tanah Merdeka, Jakarta, August 23, 2019. The alliance says the ministry's blocking internet access in Papua will only render people outside of Papua uncapable of finding the true conditions of Papua. TEMPO/Hilman Fathurrahman W
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Ministry of Communications and Information (Kominfo) announced that it may gradually lift the internet bandwidth throttling across all cellular service operators in Papua and West Papua following an official recommendation from the Indonesian National Police (Polri).
“For sure, we must wait for an official recommendation from the police. We will gradually open the internet access across the regions once the police deem the regions are safe,” said Ferdinandus Setu, the acting head of Kominfo’s public communications bureau on Monday.
The ministry has imposed a controversial policy that saw internet access limited to nearly non-existent in areas affected by the widespread demonstrations in Papua and West Papua since August 21.
Ferdinandus asserted the Ministry could only lift the internet block once the police announced that the two regions were safe from the spread of hoaxes and false information. He claimed that the procedure to reopen internet access would only take 2-hours at maximum.
“It will take two hours at the most to return it to 100 percent again once Papua’s internet access is opened,” the Kominfo official said.
