The Indonesian government has barred access to a number of internet services, including Steam, Epic Games, PayPal, and Yahoo, for failing to comply with a new requirement tied to the country’s stringent content moderation regulations.
Companies classified as “Private Electronic System Providers” must register with the government’s database in order to operate in the country, or risk a countrywide ban. Indonesia gave corporations until July 27th to comply, and those who did not are now barred.
The requirement is part of the MR5 statute, which was first implemented in 2020. The regulations allow the Indonesian government to gather data on particular users and compel corporations to remove information that “disturbs public order” or is prohibited. Platforms have four hours to respond to “urgent” removal requests or 24 hours for any other material.
According to a 2021 study from the digital rights organization Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Indonesia’s rules are “intrusive of human rights,” since they place platforms at the whim of the Indonesian government, which will prohibit them if they do not comply with local laws. The EFF wrote to the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) earlier this month, pushing the government to remove its “intrusive content control policies.”
The block has rendered users in Indonesia unable to accept payments or even play some games. Other popular games and services impacted by the restriction, according to Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners, include Origin, DOTA 2, and Counter-Strike. Meanwhile, Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, TikTok, Twitter, Netflix, and Spotify all applied for licenses last week, and all of them are still available.
Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, general director of Kominfo, said that the nation may allow people to use PayPal for a limited period under the prohibition. Pangerapan further said that the prohibition would be removed after the enterprises registered with the national database. It is unknown when these services will reopen or if they will register with the Indonesian database.
