Elon Musk's aspirations for X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, have encountered a stumbling block in Indonesia due to the site X.com being blocked under the country's curbs on online pornography and gambling, reports Al Jazeera on July 26. The Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics cited previous use of the domain by sites that violated the country's strict laws against "negative" content as the reason for the restriction.
Indonesia, with a population of 270 mn, is home to about 24 mn users of the platform, making it a significant market for X. However, the government's actions reflect their history of blocking or threatening to block popular websites deemed offensive, criminal, or dangerous to social harmony. In 2022, authorities had threatened to block sites like Netflix, Google, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter unless they complied with content submission requirements. Although these sites managed to avoid the ban by registering in time, Netflix had previously been blocked until mid-2020.
Elon Musk's rebranding of Twitter as X, with a new logo and name, was intended as the first step towards transforming the platform into an "everything app" offering services beyond social networking, such as payments and banking. However, the rebranding and potential expansion were overshadowed by the site's restriction in Indonesia.
Aribowo Sasmito, the co-founder of a fact-checking group, pointed out that the name "X.com" may have negative connotations, possibly being associated with adult content due to its proximity to "XXX." Indonesia's history of blocking risque online content presents a dilemma for internet users, with some valuing freedom while others support such measures based on religious aspects, given that Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population.
While the Indonesian government's online censorship efforts aim to control offensive and harmful content, it faces challenges as site owners can easily circumvent restrictions by changing domains or URLs.
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