Kominfo Blocks Over 800,000 Online Gambling Content in July-December 2023

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo Ministry) claimed to have blocked over 800,000 online gambling content in less than six months, from July 17 to December 30, 2023. 

"The achievement is on par with the accumulation of 5 years of online gambling blockage by the government," said Kominfo Minister Budi Arie Setiadi in a statement today, Jan. 2, 2024. 

The content blocked by the Kominfo ministry includes websites, IPs, applications, and shared files. 

In addition to online gambling, Budi Arie said, the ministry also blocked over 5,000 bank accounts and e-wallet accounts suspected of being utilized for online gambling activities. 

In detail, the Kominfo Ministry blocked 805,923 online gambling content, with 30,013 blocked content during the July 17-30 period, 55,846 blocked during August, and in September, the ministry blocked 97,371 online gambling content.

"[The ministry] achieved the highest number in October with 293,665 [content] blocked," he added.

Meanwhile, 160,503 online gambling content were blocked in November and 168,895 in December.

Budi Arie explained further that the blocked content consists of 596,348 websites and IPs, 173,134 on Meta, 29,257 shared files, 5,993 on Google or YouTube, 367 on X, 170 on Telegram, 15 on TikTok, 8 in App Store, and 1 in Snack Video.

The minister also claimed that Kominfo has collaborated with various stakeholders to tackle online gambling. "One of which is the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to block [bank] accounts affiliated with online gambling," he explained. 

Kominfo also asked internet service providers to increase their efforts to eradicate online gambling and reprimanded the tech giant Meta since a lot of online gambling content is found on the platform.

"Online gambling management would be more optimal with the involvement of various stakeholders," he concluded.