Gov't Says Will Unblock Tumblr if It 'Cleans Up' Content
Jakarta. The government will reopen access to popular microblogging site Tumblr once it "cleans up" indecent content on its platform, Communications Minister Rudiantara said on Wednesday (07/09).
"We are pushing Tumblr to clean up the indecent content, when it's clean we will unblock it," Rudiantara told reporters in Jakarta.
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology blocked access to Tumblr on Monday, citing public complaints over obscene content spread by at least 360 accounts on the social media platform.
The ministry said it notified Tumblr via email on Feb. 28 and requested that the content be removed within 48 hours, but there was no response.
This is the second time the ministry issues a site-wide ban on Tumblr, and this time again the platform's Indonesian users took to other social media to express dismay over the government's move.
"Apologies to friends who use Tumblr, they were not aware of the issue and found themselves suddenly unable to access it because of the block. I'm sorry for this," Rudiantara said.
No Reporting Tools
The ministry also said that Tumblr lacks tools to report pornographic content.
While other social media platforms, such as Twitter, also contain indecent posts, the ministry's director general of applications, Semuel A. Pangerapan, said Twitter has a mechanism to remove them.
"Last year, we took down 500,000 negative posts on Twitter, after on public complaints. On Twitter, at least there's a mechanism that can be used to report such matters. We want our internet to be clean from negative and illegal content," he said, as quoted in a statement issued by the ministry.
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