Indonesia blocks websites like Paypal, Yahoo and Steam. A law on platform regulation forces providers to register – which some missed.
Indonesian authorities blocked access to the search engine Yahoo, the online payment service PayPal and several computer game websites such as Steam and Epic Games across the country on Saturday. The reason given was that the companies had not registered in time under a new law, reports Reuters. The law forces companies in the Internet industry to work closely with authorities and to share data and block content. On Sunday, the Ministry of Communications temporarily unblocked PayPal, but only for a few days.
Platform regulation law takes effect – deadline missed
On Wednesday ended a period in Indonesia by which the operators of platform offers on the Internet (broadly defined as “private providers of electronic systems”) had to register in order to be allowed to operate in the Southeast Asian country. Registration with a government database is part of a law introduced in 2020 that would allow authorities to require web platform companies to provide certain user data or quickly remove offending content. If, for example, content is illegal or could disturb public order in the opinion of the authorities, the companies must delete it within four hours; for other content, the deletion period is 24 hours.
This deadline for registration was extended to Friday, but apparently some companies have not entered the database. Authorities began blocking websites that lacked a license to operate in Indonesia, according to Reuters report on Saturday. Affected are Yahoo, Paypal, Epic Games and the game platforms Steam, Dota and Counter-Strike operated by the US company Valve.
Paypal temporarily available: “Find another service”
In particular, the blocking of the payment service provider Paypal drew a lot of criticism in the country’s social media, because users could no longer access the amounts of money deposited there and this hit freelancers particularly hard. The Communications Ministry added that the bans would be lifted once the companies in question had registered.
On Sunday, the ministry allowed access to Paypal again. However, a ministry spokesman said the measure would only be in place for five working days. Hopefully this is enough time for people to withdraw their money and look for another service provider, the spokesman said.
(tw)
