JAKARTA, June 16 — Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi said Indonesia has succeeded in blocking around 2,945,150 online gambling content in almost a year.
“We have taken down 2,945,150 online gambling content from July 17, 2023, to June 13, 2024,” he said in a statement from his office yesterday, reported ANTARA.
The eradication of online gambling content was carried out as a form of the ministry’s commitment to preventing its negative impacts on society.
Budi said they have also submitted a proposal to close around 555 e-wallet accounts related to online gambling activities to Bank Indonesia.
“The request to block 5,779 bank accounts related to online gambling to the Financial Services Authority (OJK) has been ongoing from September 18, 2023, to May 28, 2024,” he said.
From July 17, 2023, to June 13, 2024, the ministry handled 16,596 gambling page inserts on educational sites and 18,974 on government sites.
It has also sent a warning letter to digital platforms, including X (formerly Twitter), Telegram, Google, Meta, and TikTok, which unscrupulous individuals widely use to disseminate these sites.
“Digital platform managers will be fined up to 500 million rupiahs (US$29,000) per content if they are not cooperative in eradicating online gambling,” Budi said.
The ministry continues to wipe out online gambling due to its huge negative impact on society, ranging from economic, social, and even psychological aspects, which resulted in quite a few fatalities.
In eradicating online gambling sites, he said the ministry has explored technology adoption from Google in utilising Artificial Intelligence (AI) to accelerate the processing of online gambling content reports to become more effective and efficient.
In accordance with the provisions of Law Number 1 of 2024, Second Amendment to Law Number 11 of 2008 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions, the ministry is preventing the dissemination of content that is prohibited by statutory regulations by terminating access.
— Bernama
