TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Communications and Informatics Technology (Kominfo) Minister Rudiantara admits that the government was a step behind in blocking several websites that promoted negative contents. The Ministry has blocked around 800,000 websites with negative content.
“I am certain that there are millions that need to be blocked [If we were swift enough to respond],” said Minister Rudiantara after attending a seminar on the dangers of hoax news in Jakarta on Tuesday, October 17.
The Minister revealed that among the 800,000 blocked websites, most of them were pornography sites. He also revealed that the manual web-blocking they did has caused them to be one step behind. “When we block one website, one thousand more emerges,” said Rudiantara.
Kominfo ministry is set to introduce an app that can receive complaints against websites with negative content which can be accessed by the public. It will be effective in early 2018, “The blocking will be done automatically,” he said.
Until December 2016, the government has blocked nearly 800,000 websites; mostly pornography sites and hoax-spreaders.
Other than blocking websites, the ministry also utilizes a religious approach to suppress a number of negative websites. The Kominfo ministry has worked together with the Indonesian Ulama Council (MUI) earlier in the year to produce an edict on the use of social media.
Arkhelaus Wisnu Triyogo
