Herman, Jakarta – The government has agreed to reopen access to global payment platform PayPal temporarily to allow Indonesian users to withdraw their funds and migrate to other providers, a senior official said on Sunday.

The reopening applies for five days unless PayPal complies with the regulation.

The Communication and Information Technology Ministry has blocked a number of websites since Saturday for failing to register their services with the government.

The blocking affects at least eight major websites including PayPal, search engine Yahoo, and gaming services Steam, DOTA 2, Epic Games, Origin, Xandr, and Counter-Strike.

"We temporarily opened PayPal service from 8:00 this morning to allow users to migrate and prevent them from losing their money," Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, the ministry's director general of applied information technology, said in a virtual news conference.

"I hope the communities use the available five days to migrate because there are plenty of other payment digital services, including the banking system," Semuel added.

He said the executives of Steam, DOTA 2, and Counter-Strike are currently in talks with his office to complete their registration process.

"We open doors to anyone willing to be part of the Indonesian digital ecosystem, whether foreign or local providers. But rules are rules," Semuel said, adding with a local saying that translates "when in Rome do as the Romans do".

The government requires what they term Electronic System Providers, or PSE, to register their services for oversight purposes. Around 5,900 websites have registered with the ministry since the new ruling was applied last year.

The government urged the remaining providers to register before midnight on Saturday or they run the risk of being blocked in the country.

Yahoo services remain accessible on Sunday despite Semuel confirming that the tech giant has been blocked since Saturday.

Source: https://jakartaglobe.id/tech/indonesia-reopens-access-to-paypal-to-allow-users-to-migrat