Indonesian ISPs Ordered To Ban All Porn In Just A Few Weeks

by Mike Masnick
Techdirt
Aug. 02, 2010

Towards the end of July a few people submitted the news that Indonesia's Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring had ruled that all Indonesian ISPs had to start blocking access to porn by August 11th (the start of Ramadan). As of this weekend, Sembiring appears to have backed off the deadline slightly, giving ISPs one month to implement a filter that would block access to porn. The NY Times is reporting, however, that ISPs are at a loss as to how they're expected to do this. So far, all that Sembiring has apparently told them is that they should use the same keyword filter app that the government uses internally, not realizing the massive difference between a work-level filter and a country-wide filter. Also, it seems to ignore the ridiculous limitations of a pure keyword filter. The ISPs are, instead, saying that if there needs to be blocks, at the very least, the government should supply them with a list of sites to be blocked. They also warn that an internet-wide keyword filter would likely slow down internet access in the country. It seems like yet another case of someone demanding that "something" must be done, without realizing that said "something" isn't really possible.