Kominfu: The Indonesian Internet Apocalypse Countdown

The Indonesian government plans to ban tech platforms including PayPal, Steam, Epic Games, and many others. This is the countdown.

Time is up!

It has been 12 days, 2 months, 2 years, 23 hours, 38 minutes, 26 seconds since Kominfo announced the launch of their PSE system on Jul 21, 2022.

As seen in

What is this?

In July 2022, the Indonesian government implemented a new licensing system that sparked controversy among the public. This is because tech platforms that do not register will be at risk of being blocked.

Online service providers such as Google, Meta, Twitter, and many others will not be accessible on the internet in Indonesia unless they comply with the new regulations. The deadline for implementing the new licensing system is July 21, 2022.

During that time, the government went ahead and blocked PayPal, Steam, and Epic Games. As a result, it stirred up even more protests from the public. This move even caught the attention of Deddy Corbuzier, who decided to speak out about it.

The registration requirement is part of a set of rules that were first released in November 2020. These rules grant authorities the power to order platforms to remove content that is deemed to violate the law or "disturb public order" within four hours if it is deemed urgent, and within 24 hours if it is considered necessary. These new rules pose a huge privacy risk and have the potential for human rights violations.

Kominfu (a play on Kominfo) is a "Internet apocalypse" countdown machine, this was created as a form of protest against this new system.

My website is blocked in Indonesia, how do I unblock it?

First, check whether your site is really blocked in Indonesia using Indiwtf. Indiwtf is a tool I developed specifically for checking whether a website is blocked in Indonesia or not.

If you confirm that your site is blocked, unfortunately, the only way to unblock it from all internet networks in Indonesia, apart from using a VPN, is to register with Kominfo's PSE. You can register at pse.kominfo.go.id.

That's all I can say for now.

Additional References