Indonesia Blocked Yahoo PayPal Steam Website and What Can Citizens Do

I was very busy lately and did not the news until the Twitter tag #BlokirKominfo was trending. Not just surprised, but I was shocked to find Steam, a platform where I bought over $1000 of games was blocked. After reading more news, I found out that PayPal was also blocked. This received massive online protest because many Indonesians are freelancers and received their salaries in PayPal. Therefore blocking PayPal, is the same as cutting off their income where if that is their only source of income, then they are threatened to be starved on the street. If that was not shocking enough, Yahoo was also blocked.

Authority Responsible

The Authority that governs Internet access is The Ministry of Information and Communication Indonesia. The reason is because the law that requires all online service providers to register as electronic system operator. The reason is to make sure Indonesian user data are protected and the online service does not violate Indonesian’s Law. However, here is the catch that maybe true or false: online service providers are required to share Indonesian user data to the government. I learned that there are 2 main phases:

1. Register at https://pse.kominfo.go.id/home, failing to register results in few warnings and if ignored then immediately blocked.
2. Successful registration applicants are subjected to review and if the online service provider found violating Indonesian’s Law, then immediately blocked.

My Campaign Against Censorship