Indonesia’s IT Ministry warns BlackBerry Messenger over ‘pornographic’ manga found in app

Several manga titles available on BBM’s WebComics. Photo: Detik
Several manga titles available on BBM’s WebComics. Photo: Detik

Hentai, the Japanese term to describe erotic anime and manga (in other words, cartoon porn), has, according to the government, made its way in comic strips form into the popular chat app BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), causing outrage in Indonesia.

Indonesia’s IT Ministry is issuing a warning to the developers of BBM, particularly Grup Elang Mahkota Teknologi (Emtek), BBM’s license holder in Indonesia, over what they deem to be vulgar comic strips inspired by Japanese manga that are currently downloadable through the app.

“We are sending the letter (to BBM) to take down all that is pornographic,” said Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan, director general of Information Application at the IT Ministry, as quoted by Detik today.

The IT Ministry said they received complaints from BBM users who found vulgar comic strips in the app’s WebComics feature.

“I was shocked that there is something like this in BBM. Even though there’s an age warning for those below 17, accessing and reading (the vulgar comics) is as easy as clicking it. What happens if little children see this, like my little sibling, for example?” said Inna, a BBM user, as quoted by Detik.

BBM has not yet issued any statement regarding the IT Ministry’s warning.

We downloaded BBM and accessed its WebComics feature this afternoon to see what the fuss is all about. While it’s true that some of the manga — most of which are free to read — contain adult themes, none actually show anything remotely graphic or sensual to be considered “pornography” as the IT Ministry described it.

The IT Ministry has been on quite a censorship spree lately, threatening to shut down popular gaming platform Steam if it doesn’t remove Fight of Gods, a controversial fight sim between deities, from its catalogue of games.



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