Indonesia Threatens to Block WhatsApp Over Sexual Content

Indonesia‘s government has sent three notices to WhatsApp, asking it to remove pornographic content. According to a government official the app will be blocked in Indonesia if there is no response by Wednesday. Indonesia Threatens to Block WhatsApp Over Sexual Content.

Indonesia Threatens to Block WhatsApp Over Sexual Content

Indonesian authorities have warned that they will block access to the WhatsApp instant messaging app if it does not remove sexually explicit content from it.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said on Tuesday that it has already asked internet companies to block domain names which provides animated image files known as GIFs through WhatsApp.

The government has sent three notices to WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook and widely used in Indonesia, asking it to remove pornographic content and will block the app if there is no response by Wednesday, ministry official Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan said at a news conference on Monday.

Indonesia also blocked the messaging app Telegram in July because it included chat groups for Islamic State group supporters. It lifted the partial ban after Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov visited Indonesia in August and agreed on efforts to remove radical content.

According to Facebook’s Asia spokeswoman Charlene Chian, WhatsApp lets users search for GIFs using third-party providers and that WhatsApp can not monitor their content because communications on the app are encrypted.

She made a statement that:

“We’ve directed the Indonesia government to work with these third-party providers to review their content,”

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim nation. The country has strict anti-pornography laws and authorities are increasingly seeking to censor online content they suspect to be offensive.

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