The Indonesian government’s endless crusade against internet porn marches on with the IT Ministry announcing that they are banning popular “live video streaming social network” app Bigo Live.
Bigo Live, a Singapore-based app, has become extremely popular in Southeast Asia, including Indonesia, as many of its users stream sexually provocative videos of themselves in order to gain digital currency from their audience, which can be cashed in for real money.
“Bigo is being blocked because it contains nudity,” said IT Minister Rudiantara, as quoted by detikINET today.
The ministry has instructed Indonesian internet service providers to block Bigo Live and confirmed that the process is ongoing.
However, there’s a possibility that the ministry won’t block Bigo Live in its entirety after Rudiantara was promised by Bigo Live CEO David Li that he would set up a business entity in Indonesia and hire people to filter out pornographic content from the app (which would defeat the purpose of why many Indonesians use Bigo Live in the first place).
Aside from having banned obviously pornographic websites, the Indonesian IT Ministry also infamously banned Indonesians from accessing popular websites that happen to host some pornographic material, such as Reddit, Imgur, and Tumblr. But we know for a fact that the will, and hence the way, to circumvent internet filters is definitely there in Indonesia.
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