Indonesian Ministry Blocks 11,333 Online Gambling Contents This Week

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Communication and Informatics Ministry claimed to have blocked 11,333 online gambling content from July 13 to 19, 2023.

"Since 2018, the ministry has taken down 846,047 online gambling-related content," said the Minister of Communication and Informatics Budie Arie during a press conference in his office in Central Jakarta, on Thursday, July 20, 2023.

He mentioned that From January to July 17, 2023, the Communication Ministry received 1,859 complaints related to bank account misappropriation for gambling-related content through cekrekening.id platform. The number was part of the total number of 1,914 complaints throughout 2023.

Budi Emphasized that the ministry will continue to crack down on any gambling-related content including online activities to facilitate gambling. 

Taking down gambling-related content was done based on the findings of the Ministry's cyber patrol and complaints from the public or ministry agencies. The findings would then be verified, before asking related agencies for recommendations to ensure that the content was indeed a violation of the law.

The minister stressed that the Communication Ministry is authorized to directly block the content related to online gambling. However, the ministry would ask the organizer to take down the content if the online gambling-related content was found on a social media platform. "If the platform refused, they will be sanctioned in accordance with the prevailing regulations," Budi said.

Law No. 11 of 2008 on Information and Electronic Transactions is one of the regulations concerning online gambling. The regulation has been amended through Law No. 19 of 2016 on Information and Electronic Transactions Article 27 (2). The article prohibits any person who knowingly and without authority distributes and/or transmits and/or causes to be accessible Electronic Information and/or Electronic Documents with contents of gambling.

Further, Government Regulation No. 71 of 2019 concerning electronic transaction system organizers provided in Article 5 the prohibition to loading unlawful content violating the electronic system regulations. Article 96 provides the facilities and the definition of content violating the electronic system regulations

Online gambling is also ruled in the Ministry Regulation No. 2 of 2020 concerning electronic system organizers in the private sector.  Article 13 of the regulation obliges to block access to forbidden electronic information and electronic document. Meanwhile, Article 15 regulates the time and procedures to block access to unlawful content.