Daniel A. Fajri, Jakarta – Indonesia's Minister of Communications and Information Technology (Kominfo), Budi Arie Setiadi, confirmed that the government will block Telegram if the messaging application from Russia does not comply with the third warning regarding cooperation to eradicate online gambling that the ministry sent this week.

"This week, [we sent a third warning]. If there is no [response], [Telegram] will be shut down," Budi Arie said after the Online Gambling Task Force meeting at the Coordinating Ministry for Politics, Legal, and Security Office in Central Jakarta on Wednesday, June 19.

He said the Kominfo Ministry had previously sent a second warning to Telegram but had not received a response thus far. "Because they don't have any representatives here. After the third warning, we will shut it down," he stressed.

The Kominfo Ministry had asked numerous digital platforms operating in the country to help eradicate online gambling, but have been uncooperative, including Telegram.

The government issued a stern warning to Telegram on May 24, saying it could face a fine of Rp 500 million and possible revocation of its Internet Service Provider (ISP) license if it continued to allow gambling content.

The government reports that 35% of the total 1,011 ISPs have joined in the automatic synchronization of the negative content list. Testing in 2023-2024 revealed that 26 out of 136 samples still provided negative content, including online gambling and pornography.

The ministry clarified that ISP licenses will not be instantly revoked, and at least 26 ISPs have received first warning letters and 31 ISPs have received second warning letters.

The Kominfo Ministry claimed to have obtained data on ISPs facilitating online gambling content and is encouraging ISPs to automatically update the list of negative content, including online gambling, to the ministry's positive trust domain name system (DNS).

Source: https://en.tempo.co/read/1881900/indonesia-threatens-to-block-telegra