UPDATE 02/08/22: Following yesterday’s story, Valve has now registered with Kominfo. As such, Steam is no longer blocked by the Indonesian government.
PayPal and Yahoo services have also resumed in the country.
At this time, however, the Epic Games Store and its services, as well as EA’s Origin, are still blocked. Industry analyst Daniel Ahmed has stated, “there is no official confirmation on whether [Epic and EA] plan to register yet.”
The original story continues below.
ORIGINAL STORY 01/08/22: A range of online services, including those of Steam and Epic Games, are currently blocked by the Indonesian Government.
The blocks, which also affect the likes of Yahoo and PayPal, come after these companies failed to comply with a requirement related to Indonesia’s content moderation laws in a timely manner.
This regulation from the Indonesian government (Penyelenggara Sistem Elektronik Swasta (PSE) or Private Electronic System Providers) aims to “[establish] a system of all PSEs operating in Indonesia, [maintain] Indonesia’s digital space, [protect] public access on digital platforms, and [create] a fair system between domestic and foreign PSEs, including in terms of tax collection” (thanks, nikopartners).
As reported by Reuters: “Registration is required under rules released in late November 2020 and will give authorities broad powers to compel platforms to disclose data of certain users, and take down content deemed unlawful or that ‘disturbs public order’ within four hours if urgent and 24 hours if not.”
Any international companies operating in Indonesia were required to have signed up by this weekend. However, many did not, resulting in their services being blocked in the country.
An estimated 191 million internet users will be affected by the bans that are currently in place.
There is still a chance for these bans to be reversed, however.
Per industry analyst Daniel Ahmed, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) has reportedly reached out to the companies that failed to conform with this new regulation ahead of the deadline, to “ensure compliance and reverse the block.”
Several online services, such as Valorant, PUBG Mobile and Roblox, have already signed up and registered their compliance with Kominfo. Therefore, their services within Indonesia have not been affected.
