Indonesia bans search engine DuckDuckGo on gambling, pornography concerns

submitted 4 months ago by lemme in@lemm.ee

www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-ba…

Indonesia said it has banned the privacy-oriented search engine DuckDuckGo, citing concerns that it could be used to access pornography and online gambling websites which are illegal in the country, the communications ministry said on Friday.

Indonesia, with the world's biggest Muslim population, has strict rules that ban the sharing online of content deemed obscene. Social media platform Reddit and video-hosting platform Vimeo, opens new tab are blocked.

Usman Kansong, a communications ministry official, told Reuters that DuckDuckGo had been blocked "because of the many complaints made to us about the rampant online gambling and pornography content in its search results."

The ministry did not say how DuckDuckGo differs from other search engines such as Alphabet's, opens new tab Google but on its website, DuckDuckGo said it offered several products intended to "help people protect their online privacy" including the search engine, which it said has been praised by privacy advocates.

Indonesia has vowed to crack down on online gambling in recent months and has banned access to several such websites. Though illegal, government data showed 3 million Indonesians went online to gamble last year, spending an estimated $20 billion, or about 1.5% of gross domestic product.

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23 Comments

by [deleted]
4 months ago , edited 4 months ago

Deleted by author

4 months ago

Totally unrelated to the OP but damn I'm impressed that DDG is such a large percentage of the market. 1.28% sounds like nothing but I can't even guess how many millions of searches that is, that's absolutely wild. well done duckfriends.

Doing my part. Not in Indonesia though.

Can one not change their region to bypass this?

by [deleted]
4 months ago , edited 4 months ago

Deleted by author

I meant in Duckduckgo

4 months ago

Maybe one can change their religion to bypass it then

Look for a VPN, good luck!! remember abusing porn it's bad.

4 months ago

Same here in Korea.

Uncle VPN it's your friend.

4 months ago

they want to crackdown vpn as well

4 months ago

Most of the time it is not necessary. For the few times I need it, I set up WireGuard on my parents router in Germany and can connect to it.

4 months ago

My guess? This is just PR from their politicians to say "they are saving the country" or whatever bullshit without actually doing anything useful

This is just some of BS public stunts, they are trying to hide and create misinformation to deceive people. The mastermind of the online gambling issue here, is one of their cronies. A businessman, this guy being protected by top military brass and former general including a new elected president.

4 months ago

My guess? This is just PR from their politicians to say "they are saving the country" or whatever bullshit without actually doing anything useful

My guess? They're trying to suck up to Google

by [deleted]
4 months ago

Search query: "porn"

Safe search: moderate

That'll do it

Ddg will show results for “porn“ as long as safe search isn’t strict

4 months ago , edited 4 months ago

*sighs in indonesian*

*pulls out searx*

*sighs in indonesian*

bajingan...

4 months ago

So I guess the Indonesian dark web is just the internet.

4 months ago

I'm no fan of gambling but there are far better reasons to object. Hindering others' freedom because of your own faith-based belief is a far worse sin.

4 months ago

As I stated in other reply

This is just some of BS public stunts, they are trying to hide and create misinformation to deceive people. The mastermind of the online gambling issue here, is one of their cronies. A businessman, this guy being protected by top military brass and former general including a new elected president.

4 months ago

I have no doubt that could be the case.

4 months ago

I would hate to not have my porn ads personalised.