Post-porn purge/block 2018, Indonesia has opened its arms to the previously unlovable — Tumblr.
Coconuts.co reported that Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Information (Kominfo) has announced that Tumblr will once again be accessible in Indonesia now that it’s SFW.
Kominfo’s Acting Spokesperson Ferdinandus Setu stated in a press release that the ministry lifted its restrictions on Tumblr after the site stopped allowing adult content earlier this month.
As translated by Coconuts.co, Setu said: “Right now Tumblr has blocked all explicit adult content, including photos, videos, and GIFs.” Setu added that the site is now accessible in Indonesia as it has complied with the country’s morality standards.
As we know, Tumblr was previously loaded with various and varied forms of adult content. That, in conjunction with Indonesia’s strict anti-porn laws, ultimately led to Tumblr being blocked for a second time by Kominfo earlier this year. The organization had first blocked Tumblr in 2016, also because of porn, but later unblocked the site following protests by Tumblr users and rights groups.
According to Coconuts.co, this year’s ban — once again — caused a great deal of outrage amongst impacted Indonesians. Was the outrage about blocking Tumblr, or was the outrage about blocking porn? There may not be a clear answer there, but it’s interesting to consider Kominfo’s slant on the issue, namely that Tumblr is complying with the country’s “morality standards.” Perhaps engaging the Indonesian market is, in fact, a big part of why Tumblr changed its content standards in this manner?
Not to be picking on Tumblr, Kominfo has blocked a number of “problem” websites over the years, including Reddit and Vimeo. Many of these blocked sites contain user-generated content — and as we know, where there’s user-generated content, there’s porn.
Good luck blocking and policing the whole internet, Kominfo!
