Jakarta – The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has reopened access to the website version of encrypted messaging service Telegram on Thursday (10/08), following the company's efforts to block terrorist propaganda.

"Telegram will assign a representative to communicate with us," Communications Minister Rudiantara said, as quoted by Antaranews.com. "Telegram also promises to create a kind of script, a software, to filter [illegal content] on the platform," he said.

Both the dedicated person acting as a liaison and the filtering of the content represent Telegram's efforts to meet the government's demands.

Rudiantara's comment came after Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov came to Jakarta on Aug. 1 to meet with the minister and Telegram's local team.

Prior to Durov's visit, the ministry requested internet service providers to block access to Telegram's 11 domains. The encrypted messaging service has since blocked 166 channels containing what the Indonesian government calls "negative" content, including forums for Islamic State group supporters, which were blacklisted by the ministry and other government agencies.

Two days later Durov said Telegram opened a direct channel for the government and his team, which now has Indonesian-speaking specialists for faster response. Telegram gains 600,000 new users a day, with 20,000 of them coming from Indonesia.

Source: http://jakartaglobe.id/business/indonesia-reopens-access-telegram/