PayPal announced today that it has registered as an Electronic Service Provider (PSE) with the IT Ministry (Kominfo) so that Indonesian users don’t lose access to their funds in the payment platform.
Kominfo’s PSE registry does indeed show that PayPal was approved as a PSE in Indonesia today.
“PayPal is fully committed to complying with applicable laws and regulations in the markets where we do business. We have registered as a [PSE] in Indonesia, having connected directly with [Kominfo]. PayPal customers can send, receive, and access their money as usual,” a PayPal spokesperson said in a press release.
“We regret any disruption our customers may have experienced last weekend.”
Amazon, its streaming service Prime Video, and PlayStation Store also registered as PSEs today, but, unlike PayPal, they were not banned in Indonesia.
Kominfo has been under intense public scrutiny over its decision to ban some of the world’s most popular online services over their failure to register as PSEs. PayPal’s ban prompted some loud protests, particularly from freelance workers who depend on the platform to receive their payment.
Amid pressure, Kominfo initially reopened access to PayPal for five days up to Aug. 5, telling users to withdraw and migrate their funds to another payment service. The ban would have been permanent had PayPal not registered in Indonesia.
The ministry also recently lifted its ban on search engine Yahoo! and PC gaming platform Steam, among others, but did not say whether or not the reversal was permanent.
Registered PSEs are compelled to comply with Kominfo’s regulations, essentially meaning that the ministry would have unilateral power to take down any content from any platform it deems undesirable.
