Update Dec. 27: In a statement to Detik, Pornhub VP Blake White said that the account has been removed for violating the site’s terms of use.
Indonesia’s Information and Communications Ministry (Kemkominfo), the main enforcer in the country’s crusade against online pornography, has denied that it was behind a verified account on the world’s largest porn site that used the ministry’s name.
Recently, screenshots of a Pornhub account bearing the name Kemkominfo, its logo, and a verified badge went viral online, in what netizens thought was an amusing and highly ironic plot twist.
https://twitter.com/sleepyheadbonzo/status/1208851545837776896?s=20
But, from looking at the screenshots alone, it’s quite evident that the account was created by a troll using the ministry’s abbreviated name. For one, in its profile description, the account was said to be made to “oversee and guarantee the public in enjoying the video and to bust the nut.”
The real Kemkominfo has officially denied it has any involvement with the Pornhub account. In a press release received by Coconuts today, the ministry said that access to Pornhub in Indonesia has been blocked since 2017, and that the ministry has never made any account or uploaded any content on the porn site.
Kemkominfo said that it has notified the National Police’s Cybercrimes Investigation Directorate over possible identity fraud in the making of the account, and that it has emailed Pornhub requesting the porn site to take the account down.
Pornography is illegal in Indonesia and online access to it has been blocked by the government, so we, being the upstanding citizens that we are, can’t tell you whether the account is still around or not.
But, according to a naughty friend who has magically circumvented Indonesia’s porn censorship, the account is still up as of this afternoon. Coincidentally, the only video it has posted is not pornographic at all.
At any rate, the real Kemkominfo reminded the public that the dissemination of pornographic content online violates Indonesia’s Information and Electronic Transactions Act (UU ITE), and those who are caught may face up to six years in prison and a fine of IDR1 billion (US$71,500).
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