Accessibility links

Breaking News

Indonesia Bans Tumblr


Popular blogging site Tumblr has been banned in Indonesia.
Popular blogging site Tumblr has been banned in Indonesia.

Less than a week after banning same-sex emojis, the Indonesian government has banned the popular blogging site Tumblr, saying it distributes pornography.

According to the BBC, the Indonesian Information Ministry did not notify the New York-based company before announcing the ban.

Tumblr is just one of about 500 sites the Indonesian government is banning for hosting pornographic content, according to reports.

According to a 2015 report from Freedom House, Indonesia’s Internet is considered “partly free,” with the government having blocked various sites.

In addition to the ban on “gay” emojis, Indonesia has seen blockages of Netflix and video site Vimeo, expressing concern about the appropriateness of the content found on those sites. Reddit and Imgur have also faced pressure from the Indonesian government to remove pornographic content.

The government has also asked Twitter to develop filters to block pornographic content.

Twitter is extremely popular in Indonesia, and in 2012, Jakarta was named the most actively tweeting city in the world.

Companies not complying with the requests could be charged for forced out of the Indonesian market.

One popular messaging platform, LINE, announced it had removed gay emojis in compliance with government requests.

Tumblr has not commented.

  • 16x9 Image

    VOA News

    The Voice of America provides news and information in more than 40 languages to an estimated weekly audience of over 326 million people. Stories with the VOA News byline are the work of multiple VOA journalists and may contain information from wire service reports.

XS
SM
MD
LG