After the glorious announcement that Netflix had come to Indonesia (and pretty much the rest of the world) our binging sessions were brought down by news that the streaming service might be censored here. The Ministry of Research and Information Technology then tried to reassure the public that they would not block the site, only regulate it.
In yet another example of mixed signals and miscoordination (and just general suckiness) between the government and industries, local telecommunications giant Telkom Indonesia has decided to unilaterally block Netflix completely from all of its internet services (including IndiHome, WiFi.id and Telkomsel) as of today.
The news comes directly from the director of consumer affairs at Telkom, Dian Rachmawan, who said that the company had blocked access to Netflix because it did not adhere to Indonesian regulations. The presence of pornographic content on the service was also cited as a reason for the block.
“We are blocking Netflix because it does not have permission and does not follow the regulations of Indonesia. It also contains content that is not allowed in this country. We, as a state-owned enterprise, should be an example and uphold the sovereignty of the Republic of Indonesia in business,” Dian said as quoted by Dailysocial.id.
Dian said that Telkom would still want to do business with Netflix, but only once it complied with Indonesian regulations and eliminated pornographic and violent material from its content.
Just last week, Minister of Communication and Information Technology Rudiantara had said that he would give Netflix one month to comply with Indonesian regulations, including setting up a legal entity in the country and obtaining the proper operational licenses.
