Putri Prameshwari, Jakarta – The government's plan to block "offensive sites" on the Internet has come under fire from several Web sites, including two major news portals, which have suffered from access problems, presumably as a result of the plan.
News portal Detik.com's advertisement section and Kompas.com were inaccessible on Wednesday morning, prompting Internet users and media experts to question a recent policy mandated by Communication and Information Technology Minister Tifatul Sembiring.
On Monday, Tifatul said that 80 percent of "offensive sites" on the Internet in Indonesia had been blocked.
However, Detik.com founder and chairman Budiono Darsono expressed his outrage on Wednesday when the portal's subdomain was blocked. "The subdomains that are blocked are related to images and our ad-surfing service," Budiono said on his Twitter account.
Other Web sites that were temporarily blocked included Kompas.com, community forum Kaskus.us, and Google Adsense, a service that provides text-based advertising.
The communication ministry worked with major Internet service providers including Telkom, Bakrie Telkom and IndosatM2 to block sites the government deemed offensive.
Ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto apologized for the blockage, saying that Tuesday was only the first day the plan was implemented.
"We apologize to some Web sites that were also blocked today," he said, adding that it should be understood that "this is a big plan and it takes time to implement it perfectly."
Gatot said that the ministry would soon open a hotline which site users and owners could call to file reports on blockages. The ministry, he said, would verify the reported sites and take immediate action.
"Especially if it's media, after a reported Web site is verified, we would add it to our white list, which means it cannot be blocked," he said.
Through social networking site Facebook, members of the public have formed a group rejecting the ban, calling it censorship by the government.
Enda Nasution, a prominent blogger who is also a supporter of the Facebook group, said that such bans could be dangerous if allowed to continue. "Internet censorship could be used to silence political opposition," Enda said. "This is useless."
Valens Riyadi, from the Indonesian Internet Service Provider Association (APJII), said that the basis behind the regulation was questionable. "Most of the providers do not have any guidelines when they block these sites," he said.
Internet service providers, Valens said, are still following a regulation from the ministry which says that they should provide users with a choice when it comes to Web site filters.
"So far, users can choose whether they want to be automatically filtered or not," he said, "but there are no detailed regulations that explain what should be filtered."
Gatot said the ministry would "keep on improving the regulation" based on suggestions from Internet users and providers.
Earlier, Tifatul said the ban had a strong legal basis, citing several laws. "This is a long-term plan, not only for Ramadan," he said. "We will keep discussing and making sure mistakes like this will not happen in the future."