WhatsApp Threatened to Be Blocked by Indonesia Over Obscene Content

Advertisement
By Reuters | Updated: 6 November 2017 17:29 IST

Indonesia on Monday vowed to block Facebook Inc's WhatsApp Messenger within 48 hours if the service did not ensure that obscene Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) images were removed.

WhatsApp, which is widely used in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority country, said message encryption prevented it from monitoring the third-party providers Indonesians use to search for GIFs.

It asked the government to work with the providers instead.

Advertisement

Semuel Pangerapan, a director general at Indonesia's communications and informatics ministry, said WhatsApp would be blocked within 48 hours unless the images supplied by third parties were taken off the service.

Advertisement

"Yes, true. They have to follow the rules of the host," Pangerapan said of the proposed block.

The ministry had sent three letters to WhatsApp over the issue, he said.

Advertisement

"They have responded, but asked us to speak directly to the third party. The GIFs appeared in their apps. Why do we have to be the one speaking to the third party? They are supposed to be the ones managing it," said Pangerapan.

Tenor, a third-party provider of GIFs to WhatsApp, had been blocked, Pangerapan said.

Advertisement

Tenor did not immediately respond to a request for comment."In Indonesia, WhatsApp lets people search for GIFs using third-party providers," a Whatsapp representative said in a statement.

"We are not able to monitor GIFs on WhatsApp since content is end-to-end encrypted. We've directed the Indonesia government to work with these third-party providers to review their content."

Indonesia had 69 million monthly active Facebook users as of the first quarter of 2014, ranking the country fourth globally after the United States, India and Brazil, company data showed.

The Indonesian Consumers Foundation (YLKI) had urged the communications ministry to block pornographic GIF images accessible via emoticons, complaining that children could easily reach them, according to news website kompas.com.

© Thomson Reuters 2017

 

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.

Further reading: WhatsApp, Apps, Internet, Indonesia
Advertisement

Related Stories

Popular Mobile Brands
  1. OnePlus 15: Everything We Know Ahead of Its Upcoming Launch in China
  2. NASA Says Martian Ice Might Hide Clues of Ancient Life
  3. We Live in Time OTT Release: When, Where to Watch the Andrew Garfield Starrer
  1. NASA Experiment Shows Martian Ice Could Preserve Signs of Ancient Life
  2. MIT Detects Traces of a Lost ‘Proto Earth’ Deep Beneath Our Planet’s Surface
  3. Astronomers Detect Heavy Water in Planet-Forming Disk Around Young Star
  4. Global Projects Aim to Save Sinking Cities From Rising Seas and Climate Change
  5. NASA Confirms Brightening Comet SWAN Could Be Visible With Binoculars: When and Where to See It
  6. We Live in Time OTT Release: When, Where to Watch the Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh Romance
  7. Imbam Is Now Streaming Online: Know Everything About This Deepak Parambol Starrer Malayali Drama
  8. Mysterious Asteroid Impact Found in Australia, But the Crater is Missing
  9. Thanal Comes to OTT: Everything You Need to Know About This Tamil Action Thriller
  10. Madam Sengupta Is Now Streaming: Know Where to Watch This Bangla Crime Thriller
Gadgets 360 is available in
Download Our Apps
Available in Hindi
© Copyright Red Pixels Ventures Limited 2025. All rights reserved.