Tech minister takes U-turn. Tumblr won’t be blocked in Indonesia

Image credit: Gifsec.

Good news for Tumblr-bloggers in Indonesia. In reaction to protests from civil rights groups and ordinary citizens, Indonesia’s tech ministry yesterday evening took back the decision to block Tumblr.

Ismael Cawidu, the tech ministry’s head of PR, told local media the new decision is to reach out to Yahoo – which owns Tumblr – to find on a solution that limits access to individual adult content Tumblr sites, rather than all of Tumblr.

The u-turn came less than 24 hours after another ministry spokesperson declared Tumblr was one of hundreds of sites the ministry believed to contain pornography. He said the ministry already issued an order to local internet service providers to block access to the sites on the list.

It’s possible that president Joko Widodo’s current trip to Silicon Valley is part of the reason the tech ministry backpedaled. After all, tech minister Rudiantara is also participating in the state visit, being welcomed at headquarters of tech giants like Facebook and Twitter. Blocking Tumblr at home while praising the importance of social media as a contributor to economy and culture sends a confusing message.

Yeah, great job, everyone. Image credit: Tumblr.

The Tumblr debate is just like the one that flared up when Vimeo was banned in Indonesia a while back. Rudiantara promised to unblock it if Vimeo showed itself cooperative and helped filter out adult content. He’s asking the same thing of Tumblr now.

The problem is one of definition. Indonesia thinks of pornography in loose terms – for example nudity in an artistic context can be labelled pornographic. The conversation with Vimeo apparently didn’t lead to a compromise, so that Vimeo remains blocked in the archipelago.