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Indonesian residents complained about pornographic and gambling content in the search results of DuckDuckGo. The first violation is unacceptable in a Muslim country, while the second is prohibited by law. As a result, the privacy-oriented search engine was blocked by the Indonesian regulator, and access to DuckDuckGo through telecom operators throughout the country is closed without using a VPN.
The Indonesian government's decision to block DuckDuckGo is not surprising given the cultural and religious context. Indonesia is a Muslim country where gambling is prohibited and porn is considered morally unacceptable.
In January 2024, Indonesia announced the blocking of almost 600 thousand gambling portals and took measures against 5 thousand bank accounts that interacted with them.
Earlier, the government blocked many porn sites, the Reddit and Vimeo platforms, and also imposed temporary or partial restrictions on Tumblr, Telegram, TikTok, Netflix and Badoo.
DuckDuckGo confirmed to BleepingComputer that Indonesia has blocked the search engine in the country and that the company has no way to respond to this.
"We can confirm that DuckDuckGo has been blocked in Indonesia due to their censorship policy. Unfortunately, at the moment there is no way to unblock our project, just as we have been blocked in China for about ten years," DuckDuckGo clarified.
Notably, Google Search remains available in Indonesia, suggesting that either the tech giant has implemented effective self-censorship mechanisms for its local search engine, or its size makes the block too disruptive for Internet usage in the country.
As part of blocking DuckDuckGo, Indonesians resorted to using VPN services to circumvent government restrictions. However, Indonesia plans to block free VPNs, which will make accessing blocked resources an expensive option.
Indonesia's Minister of Communications and Information Budi Arie Setiadi said that the government intends to restrict access to free VPN tools, as these resources are used to access blocked online gambling portals.
"The agency is addressing the issue of online gambling to make it clear that this is the darkest side of digitalization," Setiadi said. The minister also recalled the risks of free VPN services, in particular, theft of personal data, malware infection and slowing down or unreliability of the Internet connection.
• Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-indonesia-over-porn-gambling-search-results/
The Indonesian government's decision to block DuckDuckGo is not surprising given the cultural and religious context. Indonesia is a Muslim country where gambling is prohibited and porn is considered morally unacceptable.
In January 2024, Indonesia announced the blocking of almost 600 thousand gambling portals and took measures against 5 thousand bank accounts that interacted with them.
Earlier, the government blocked many porn sites, the Reddit and Vimeo platforms, and also imposed temporary or partial restrictions on Tumblr, Telegram, TikTok, Netflix and Badoo.
DuckDuckGo confirmed to BleepingComputer that Indonesia has blocked the search engine in the country and that the company has no way to respond to this.
"We can confirm that DuckDuckGo has been blocked in Indonesia due to their censorship policy. Unfortunately, at the moment there is no way to unblock our project, just as we have been blocked in China for about ten years," DuckDuckGo clarified.
Notably, Google Search remains available in Indonesia, suggesting that either the tech giant has implemented effective self-censorship mechanisms for its local search engine, or its size makes the block too disruptive for Internet usage in the country.
As part of blocking DuckDuckGo, Indonesians resorted to using VPN services to circumvent government restrictions. However, Indonesia plans to block free VPNs, which will make accessing blocked resources an expensive option.
Indonesia's Minister of Communications and Information Budi Arie Setiadi said that the government intends to restrict access to free VPN tools, as these resources are used to access blocked online gambling portals.
"The agency is addressing the issue of online gambling to make it clear that this is the darkest side of digitalization," Setiadi said. The minister also recalled the risks of free VPN services, in particular, theft of personal data, malware infection and slowing down or unreliability of the Internet connection.
• Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/ne...-indonesia-over-porn-gambling-search-results/
