Kominfo Threatens to Revoke Licenses of ISPs Facilitating Online Gambling

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The Ministry of Communication and Information (Kominfo) has threatened to revoke Internet Service Providers (ISP) that facilitate online gambling. Minister of Communication and Information Budi Arie Setiadi said the government could revoke it if the ISP platform was not cooperative.

“To all ISP operators, if you are not cooperative, I will not hesitate to revoke your permit which is used to facilitate online gambling games,” said Budi Arie in a press conference, Friday, (24/5/2024).

Budi said that ISP license revocation could be carried out based on two regulations. The first regulation is Minister of Communication and Information Regulation Number 5 of 2020 concerning Private Electronic System Operators and its amendment provisions. In addition, the Minister of Communication and Information Decree Number 172 of 2024 concerning Guidelines for Implementing PNBP stems from the Imposition of Administrative Fines for Violations in Fulfilling UGC Private Scope PSE Obligations to Terminate Access.

Currently, there are 1,011 ISPs in Indonesia. Of the total, only 36% is synchronized with the Kominfo database system. In 2023-2024, Kominfo will conduct sampling. The result was that 26 samples out of 136 samples were able to access negative content, both online gambling and pornography. From this check, 31 ISPs and 26 samples received warnings.

Apart from that, Budi is also preparing fines for ISP operators who still display content related to online gambling. He said the government would fine a maximum of IDR 500 million for every piece of content related to online gambling found on the internet platform. This threat of sanctions is also addressed to large ISPs such as Google, TikTok, Meta, Telegram, and X.

“I want to convey a strong warning to all managers such as

As of May 2024, the Ministry of Communication and Information has recorded at least 1,904,246 content related to online gambling. Apart from that, there are 20,241 gambling keywords that have changed on Google and 2,637 on the Meta digital platform.

Meanwhile, from the Financial Services Authority, Budi explained that he had also blocked 5,364 accounts affiliated with online gambling, and 555 e-wallets that had been submitted to Bank Indonesia for closure.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

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