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Glitches in Blocking ‘Offensive’ Indonesian Web Sites Provokes Anger
Putri Prameshwari | August 12, 2010

Tifatul Sembiring, center in this file photo, has been criticized for inadvertently blocking access to news portals and innocuous business Web addresses as part of his campaign to block Tifatul Sembiring, center in this file photo, has been criticized for inadvertently blocking access to news portals and innocuous business Web addresses as part of his campaign to block 'offensive' content from the Indonesian public. (Antara Photo/Maulana Surya Tri Utama)
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SirAnthonyKnown-Bender
9:11am Aug 15, 2010

So liberal = socialism? In the oparlence of our times, Political insight fail.

gustinug
4:32pm Aug 14, 2010

See,folks, not even original using a canned insult from a latin joke book. What'd i tell ya?

Ya gotta love em, they're so predictable.

No relevant arguments or facts to refute the points, just banging on the same old ideology.

Kudos to the europeans. After bankrupting themselves with liberal policies for years, they are finally realizing that less socialism might be a good idea.


aalsha
1:38pm Aug 14, 2010

Welcome to the Communist Republic of Indonesia.

Roland
11:25am Aug 14, 2010

@gustinug - that's certainly food for thoughts, or, as the Romans would say:"Stercorem pro cerebro habes".

Have a lovely weekend...


SirAnthonyKnown-Bender
9:03am Aug 14, 2010

Yes, I was referring to the dictionary definition of the word 'Liberal' of course, not the Fox News, Tea Party, bastardization of the said term used which is now used to smear those who don't subscribe to an impoverished social Darwinist view of government. Although I shouldn't be surprised as, using words such as dufus, you're clearly an American, which would no doubt account for the 7th grade emotional and intellectual level of your discourse.

Liberalism, in the traditional sense, and in the sense the US republic was founded on, means a belief in liberty and equality.It's a broad church but most liberals support constitutions, democracy, human rights, seperation of church and state, free trade and capitalism. The idea came from John Locke and Western democracies, including the US and its founding fathers, have further developed these principles over the years.

However these are principles that have been eroded massively, especially in America with its Patriot acts and its hypocritical state capitalist hegemony, and thus, within the massive propaganda and public relations industry that controls the public mind there, the word has had to be redefined...to the point where you actually just laughably equated it with communism. Sorry if that sounds angry, I'm more amused in fact.


Jakarta. The government’s plan to block “offensive sites” on the Internet has come under fire from several Web sites, including two major news portals, which have suffered from access problems, presumably as a result of the plan.

News portal Detik.com’s advertisement section and Kompas.com were inaccessible on Wednesday morning, prompting Internet users and media experts to question a recent policy mandated by Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring.

On Monday, Tifatul said that 80 percent of “offensive sites” on the Internet in Indonesia had been blocked.

However, Detik.com founder and chairman Budiono Darsono expressed his outrage on Wednesday when the portal’s subdomain was blocked.

“The subdomains that are blocked are related to images and our ad-surfing service,” Budiono said on his Twitter account.

Other Web sites that were temporarily blocked included Kompas.com, community forum Kaskus.us, and Google Adsense, a service that provides text-based advertising.

The communication ministry worked with major Internet service providers including Telkom, Bakrie Telkom and IndosatM2 to block sites the government deemed offensive.

Ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto apologized for the blockage, saying that Tuesday was only the first day the plan was implemented.

“We apologize to some Web sites that were also blocked today,” he said, adding that it should be understood that “this is a big plan and it takes time to implement it perfectly.”

Gatot said that the ministry would soon open a hotline which site users and owners could call to file reports on blockages.

The ministry, he said, would verify the reported sites and take immediate action.

“Especially if it’s media, after a reported Web site is verified, we would add it to our white list, which means it cannot be blocked,” he said.

Through social networking site Facebook, members of the public have formed a group rejecting the ban, calling it censorship by the government.

Enda Nasution, a prominent blogger who is also a supporter of the Facebook group, said that such bans could be dangerous if allowed to continue.

“Internet censorship could be used to silence political opposition,” Enda said. “This is useless.”

Valens Riyadi, from the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (APJII), said that the basis behind the regulation was questionable.

“Most of the providers do not have any guidelines when they block these sites,” he said.

Internet service providers, Valens said, are still following a regulation from the ministry which says that they should provide users with a choice when it comes to Web site filters.

“So far, users can choose whether they want to be automatically filtered or not,” he said, “but there are no detailed regulations that explain what should be filtered.”

Gatot said the ministry would “keep on improving the regulation” based on suggestions from Internet users and providers.

Earlier, Tifatul said the ban had a strong legal basis, citing several laws.

“This is a long-term plan, not only for Ramadan,” he said. “We will keep discussing and making sure mistakes like this will not happen in the future.”