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

from the good-luck dept

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.
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Filed Under: blocking, filters, indonesia, porn


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  • icon
    cc (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 2:58am

    Between this post mentioning porn and the last one mentioning sex, I think we're safe to say TechDirt is getting banned in Indonesia. ;)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 2:59am

    hahahahaha, all porn?! Thats what 80% of the internet gl with that, not to mention porn can be kinda objective... what a waste of money

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Richard (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 3:51am

    Keywords

    How does a keyword search filter out pictures?

    A few years ago I reviewed a paper (I think it originated in the region in question) that was attempting to filter pictures by looking for nipples. It was very unconvincing - I think it was ultimately rejected.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    DS, 2 Aug 2010 @ 4:01am

    All internet pron? How do they deal with rule 34?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    I know stuff..., 2 Aug 2010 @ 4:05am

    One way that would work is if all the ISP's closed down and didn't transmit anything. That would stop all the porn they transmit.

    I wonder if they would be willing to try that little experiment.. Maybe the government would change its mind about it?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 4:24am

    i come from indonesia, it's nothing serious, sometimes the minister order the impossible just to make sure that he still has job to do...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    shanoboy (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 4:47am

    HAHAH!

    Good luck with that one guys!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Michael Lockyear, 2 Aug 2010 @ 4:50am

    Real Muslims (and Christians for that matter) don't look at porn...why do they need a filter? The answer (quite obvious), from the NY Times article, "The filter would begin with pornography and would later be expanded to other undesirable sites."

    Even if they can scrape together a list of sites to block, circumvention is literally child's play.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Berenerd (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 5:25am

    When will people realize...

    2 things have always bothered me about Christian/Catholic religions. I say this because its the only 2 I know pretty well.
    1) God loves all his children. So no matter what we do, he will love us. So if we are poly S&Mers that are gay, despite what the church says, god still loves us.

    2) God made human kind in his image. if thats so, god is just a dirty little pervert like the rest of us.

    So with that said...why all the hate?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 5:29am

      Re: When will people realize...

      Power, Control...More Power, More Control.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Richard (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 6:08am

      Re: When will people realize...

      1) God loves all his children. So no matter what we do, he will love us. So if we are poly S&Mers that are gay, despite what the church says, god still loves us.

      You are right - and if you go to the right church you will find that it agrees with you.

      2) God made human kind in his image. if thats so, god is just a dirty little pervert like the rest of us.


      An interesting point. I think that it comes down to the fact that we distort the image of God with our own choices.

      So with that said...why all the hate?

      Absolutely no justification for it at all in the New Testament. There are a few bits of the Old that can be read that way if you are so minded - but for a Christian the New takes priority over the old.

      Now it is true that Jesus did get angry on one occasion - but but it didn't have anything to do with sex. It was with the moneychangers in the temple.

      In general I think that a concentration on sexual morality is usually a displacement activity from the things that religious people ought to worry about. I don't think that it reflects God's priorities.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Lisae Boucher (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 5:29am

    I wonder if TechDirt would be blocked in even more locations if we not only mention sex and porn but also cialis, viagra and other common spam words. Anyway, it's a dumb move since those who want to view porn will do anything to bypass those filters and those who don't want to see porn will just end being blocked from many useful sites. It's just going to hurt the wrong persons...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Joe Redmond, 2 Aug 2010 @ 5:31am

    Making a Bad Thing Worse

    Those 3rd worlders are really going to have to suffer. I would like to see numbers on how much porn is actually viewed in the country vs. other content. What an interesting stat that would be.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 5:43am

    good luck with that

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    mike allen (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 6:05am

    one word

    impossible

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 6:42am

    I guess this is how some governments think they can show they do work for something sometimes.

    It is like the entertainment industry, they know it is impossible still they will throw things at the wall and see what sticks.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 7:10am

    What happened? Did he get a boner?

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Wolfy, 2 Aug 2010 @ 7:15am

    This is just another example of islamists trying to control all of society, not just the segment that adheres to islam's tenets.

    Another reason why ALL religions should be shunned.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    v, 2 Aug 2010 @ 8:14am

    They need to bless every computer with holy water. The only way to stop it to try to convince people as to why porn is bad for them. Not making it more taboo thus making it hotter. They can expect porn traffic to increase

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Phillip Vector (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 10:43am

    Porn

    I once worked for a company that wanted me to put in a porn filter on the server. I asked them to please define porn and then I will block it. I didn't hear back. I think they got the point I was trying to make.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Super Best Friends, 2 Aug 2010 @ 3:45pm

    Hmm that new thing they call internet, it sounds bad.
    Shut it down now!

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 2 Aug 2010 @ 7:57pm

    i'm in the said country...this is what you get if your so called IT minister has no-IT background. Plus you get crappy internet speed (we're the 159th from that speed rank story yesterday) yay us :(

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Jay (profile), 2 Aug 2010 @ 11:41pm

    Quick question

    Why not just ban sex? Problem is solved in ~ 60+ years. Then they all have nothing to fight about.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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