Indonesia steps up online obscenity purge

> But threat to block WhatsApp dropped

JAKARTA: Indonesia said yesterday it would summon representatives of messaging services and search engines, including Google, to demand they remove obscene content, but dropped a threat to block WhatsApp Messenger after “GIF” images were taken off the service.

The internet is already partly censored in Indonesia, but the latest steps mark an escalation against a background of growing conservatism.

“We will call all providers, including Google to clean up their network,” said communication and informatics ministry director-general Semuel Pangerapan.

The ministry vowed on Monday to block Facebook’s WhatsApp within 48 hours if the service did not ensure that obscene Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) images were removed.

WhatsApp said on Monday that message encryption prevented it from monitoring GIFs that are available on the app through third-party services.

It said it had asked the government instead to work with those providers, which integrate their technology into WhatsApp to allow users to enter keywords to search for GIFs.

Tenor Inc, one of the third parties, said it had “already implemented a fix for the content issues”.

Users of WhatsApp on iPhones were unable to access Tenor GIFs yesterday.

“We see now that they have done what we asked. Therefore, we won’t block them because they have responded to us,” Semuel said yesterday.

WhatsApp is widely used in Indonesia – prolifically by ministers and bureaucrats.

Indonesia’s warning did not appear to target Gboard, a keyboard app by Google that provides comparable GIF search results but must be installed separately from WhatsApp on most devices.

Indonesia blocks access to websites offering criticism of Islam, dating services and sex education, research published in May by Tor Project, a non-profit maker of Web browsing tools, showed.

Indonesia had 69 million monthly active Facebook users by the first quarter of 2014, ranking it fourth globally after the US, India and Brazil, company data showed.

Some reaction on Indonesian social media to the threatened block was sceptical.

“While you’re at it, why don’t you block Twitter too, (and) if necessary all browsers in the Playstore, because it’s way easier to search for porn there than on WhatsApp,” wrote Twitter user @ jnessy.

The country’s regulators have reached settlements with technology companies after threatening to shut them down.

In August, Indonesia said it would block a website for showing gambling-related ads. Access was soon restored after it agreed to cooperate with regulators.

Bans were similarly rescinded on social media sites such as Vimeo and Tumblr, and chat app Telegram. – Reuters