Jakarta – Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara has said content promoting radical views decreased during the fasting month of Ramadan.
Rudiantara said that since May, the ministry had been deactivating 500 accounts posting such negative content per day. The number plunged to 50 accounts per day during the fasting month. At least 48 percent of radical content came from social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.
"We have blocked at least 4,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts recently," Rudiantara was quoted by tempo.co as saying on Friday, adding that the ministry was now keeping a close eye on 20,000 other accounts suspected of distributing radical and terrorist content.
The ministry has teamed up with the police to monitor the suspected accounts. "The police capture the culprits in the real world, while we take down the accounts in the cyber world," he asserted.
Rudiantara called on netizens to avoid spreading radical content to prevent their accounts from being subject to the cyber crackdown. Published content should be positive, he asserted. (dmr)