Reuters-Jakarta An official said Indonesia stopped Yahoo, Paypal, and many gaming sites for failing to comply with licence standards, provoking a social media reaction.
Under rules issued in late November 2020, authorities will have broad powers to compel platforms to divulge user data and remove unlawful or “disturbing public order” information within four hours if urgent, and 24 hours if not.
Several tech companies rushed to register before the Friday deadline, including Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Inc., Meta Platforms Inc.’s Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, and Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN).
Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, a senior official at Indonesia’s Communications Ministry, stated that Yahoo, Paypal, and gaming sites had been blocked.
Paypal, Apollo Global Management (NYSE:APO), and Valve Corporation, which control Steam, Dota, and Counter-Strike, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. EpicGames couldn’t comment.
“BlokirKominfo,” Epic Games, and Paypal trended on Indonesian Twitter (NYSE:TWTR), with many criticising the government’s move as affecting the online gaming business and freelancers who use Paypal.
Pangerapan didn’t comment.
Southeast Asia is a big market for tech platforms, with 191 million internet users and a young, social-media-aware populace.
