Indonesia bans access to Yahoo, PayPal, Steam, etc.



Indonesian regulators have blocked access to services such as search engine

Yahoo , payment service PayPal , and PC game stores Steam and Epic Games for not complying with Indonesian regulations.

Indonesia blocks Yahoo, Paypal, gaming websites over license breaches | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/indonesia-blocks-yahoo-paypal-gaming-websites-over-licence-breaches-2022-07-30/

Indonesia bans access to Steam, Epic Games, PayPal, and more - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2022/7/30/23285091/indonesia-bans-access-steam-epic-games-paypal-yahoo

The regulations, which came into force as part of a law called 'MR5' announced by the Indonesian government in late November 2020, require companies deemed 'private electronic system providers' to register for a license to operate in the country. need to do it. In addition, MR5 allows Indonesia's Ministry of Communications and Information (Kominfo) to notify ``content deemed illegal'' or ``content deemed to disturb public order'' within 4 hours of the request in case of emergency, and 24 hours otherwise. It also has the power to force it to be deleted within.

Indonesia has been asking private electronic system providers to register their licenses since the regulation was announced. However, on July 27, 2022, it finally started blocking access to services provided by companies that did not comply with the rules. Yahoo, PayPal, Steam, Dota2, Counter-Strike and Epic Games are among those affected, according to Kominfo official Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan.

Game industry analyst Daniel Ahmad also warned about access restrictions by the Indonesian government. Ad Marketplace) is also blocked.




Reddit reports that the block has already disabled access to some gaming and payment services. When accessing a blocked service, it seems that the following bright red warning screen will be displayed.



On the other hand, companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, TikTok, Twitter, Netflix, and Spotify have registered licenses in accordance with MR5, so the services provided by these companies can still be used in Indonesia.

Private equity, the parent company of PayPal and Yahoo, and Valve, the operator of Steam, Dota, and Counter-Strike, have been asked by Reuters to comment on this access restriction, but no response was obtained at the time of writing the article. Is not ...

Since Kominfo restricted access to some services, the hashtag '

#BlokirKominfo ', which means 'access blocked by the Indonesian Ministry of Communications', has been trending on Indonesian Twitter. On Twitter, there are also voices criticizing the Indonesian government, such as ``It is a move that harms the Indonesian game industry and freelance workers who use PayPal.''



In addition, the non-profit Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) pointed out that Indonesia's MR5 is 'violating human rights' in 2021. In addition, EFF sent a letter to Kominfo in early July 2022, requesting ``to abolish invasive content moderation rules''.

Mr. Pangerapan said that Indonesian users will seek a solution to withdraw their deposits from PayPal, and Reuters reported that ``access to PayPal may be unblocked for a short period of time.'' Mr. Pangerapan also commented that if the website registers a license, access restrictions will be lifted.

in Web Service,   Game, Posted by logu_ii