Indonesia will temporarily open access to third-party payment PayPal to allow users to distribute their funds, a senior Indonesian official said Sunday, according to foreign media reports on Aug. 1. The move follows strong protests over Indonesia’s blocking of several unregistered Internet companies.
Indonesia’s communications ministry on Saturday blocked eight unregistered Internet companies, including PayPal, search engine site Yahoo and several game providers such as Steam and Epic Games. The reason is that Indonesia issued new regulations at the end of November 2020 requiring domestic and foreign technology companies to register their licenses with the Ministry of Communication and Information, under which the authorities will be empowered to remove content deemed illegal or disruptive to public order. And the companies failed to complete the registration before the deadline set by the license.
However this move drew strong criticism and protests from internet users. Considering the widespread impact of the suspension of PayPal’s services, PayPal was then temporarily allowed to continue offering its services for five days.
Communications ministry officials argued that the measure was intended to protect Indonesian Internet users and the digital ecosystem, and said authorities would lift the block on the sites if they complied with registration rules.
