Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Information (Kominfo) has announced today that popular microblogging site Tumblr is once again accessible in Indonesia now that it’s SFW.
Like he hinted to Coconuts Jakarta earlier this month, Kominfo Acting Spokesperson Ferdinandus Setu stated in a press release today that the ministry lifted its restrictions on Tumblr after the site no longer allowed adult content on its platform since Dec 17.
The platform wasn’t necessarily a cesspool of pornography to begin with, but Tumblr was known for having a loose policy towards NSFW and adult content, which ultimately led to the site being blocked by Kominfo in March of this year due to the country’s strict anti-pornography laws. The ban caused a great deal of outrage among Indonesian netizens.
“Right now Tumblr has blocked all explicit adult content, including photos, videos, and GIFs,” Ferdinandus said in the statement, adding that the site is now accessible in Indonesia as it has now complied with the country’s morality standards.
Earlier this month, Tumblr announced that it would no longer allow adult content on its platform (meaning its unblocking in Indonesia is probably indifferent news to those who accessed it for porn) starting Dec 17. Under Tumblr’s updated community guidelines, photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations “that show real-life human genitals or female-presenting nipples, and any content… that depicts sex acts” are now banned from the site, with some notable exceptions including images portraying breastfeeding.
Kemkominfo first blocked Tumblr in 2016 due to pornographic content but later reversed its policy following protests by Tumblr users and rights groups. The ministry blocked Tumblr again in March of this year for violation of Indonesia’s strict anti-pornography laws.
Kemkominfo has for years blocked a number of highly popular websites containing user-generated content, such as Reddit and Vimeo, over the small percentage of pornographic material that can be found on them. In their Sisyphean attempt to block all pornography and other “negative content” on the internet, the government last year invested in IDR194 billion (US$14.28 million) on an automatic censorship system. Most recently, after that automated system proved essentially useless, Kemkominfo took their anti-pornography battle to search engines, instructing ISPs to restrict search enquiries for adult content.
