Authorities in Indonesia have lifted the nationwide blocking of the websites of Paypal, Yahoo and several offers from the games manufacturer Valve. Last Saturday, a – previously extended – period expired by which providers of web services in the Southeast Asian country had to register. After several prominent companies failed to do so, the authorities took action and implemented the threatened ban. Paypal, Yahoo and Valve have now completed the required registration and thus lifted their ban, reports Engadget.
Much criticism of PayPal blockade
The background to the ban is the implementation of a 2020 law regulating internet platform companies. The government wants to enforce close cooperation with the companies and force them to immediately delete criminal content or content that “endangers public order” and hand over user data. A central government database acts as an interface: if a service provider wants to continue operating in Indonesia, the company must register there. In addition to Yahoo and Paypal, Valve had failed to do so, whereupon the Ministry of Communications blocked its Steam, Dota and Counter-Strike platforms.
The blocking of PayPal in particular drew a lot of criticism in the country’s social media. The users would suddenly no longer be able to access the money they deposited there, and freelancers in particular would be severely affected because they depend on payments via the platform for their existence.
The ministry then lifted the Saturday ban on Sunday – but only for five days, according to a ministry spokesman. This period must be enough for people to withdraw their money and look for another service, the spokesman added.
According to the Engadget report, the game providers Epic Games and Electronic Arts with its Origin platform are still affected by the ban.
(tw)
