The Indonesian government has clamped down on Internet pornography by blocking access to more than one million websites ahead of the holy month of Ramadan.
The Times of India reports that government minister Tifatul Sembiring revealed that seven figures worth of websites are now blocked from Indonesian Web users, but the clampdown is not over. Officials are targetting more sites while, equally, they may look to extend the blockages beyond the Muslim festival.
“We will block more porn sites during Ramadan, though that doesn’t mean that we will allow such sites to operate during the rest of the year,” the minister said.
The move marks the latest chapter in Indonesia’s fight to close down porn sites in the country, and the issue remains a significant one for authorities in the country, which has the world’s largest Islamic population (circa 202 million).
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Pornography was banned on all BlackBerry smartphones in the country last January, after the government applied significantly pressure on RIM.
That blockage is significant because, though they may be fast declining in the US and other parts of the world, BlackBerry devices are Indonesia’s most popular smartphones – although the growth of Android is likely to change that before too long.
Image via Shutterstock / Dmitriy Shironosov
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