Logo of social media X shown in a smartphone. (Photo: Antara)
Jakarta (VNA) – Indonesia’s Communications andInformation Ministry (Kominfo) summoned representatives from the Singaporeoffice of social media platform X, formerly Twitter, to address concernsregarding online gambling advertisements on the platform.
Speaking at a press conference on February 29, SemuelAbrijani Pangerapan, director-general of informatics application at theministry, said the ministry wanted to streamline the process of identifying andremoving gambling content without manual intervention.
Pangerapan said that they issue a ‘notice to take down’ forsuch content, but it becomes cumbersome if it repeats. Indonesian authorityasked the platform to develop a system for automatic handling.
Concerns among netizens have escalated due to theproliferation of online gambling advertisements on X, involving public figures.This was deemed disruptive, appearing in search results even for users who didnot follow accounts promoting online gambling.
According to a recent survey by Populix, 63% of internetusers claimed they have been exposed to online gambling ads, with 41% ofrespondents admitting an interest in visiting online gambling sites afterseeing such advertisements. Out of this group, 16% eventually tried onlinegambling.
In 2023, Kominfo took down 810,785 pieces of contentrelated to online gambling, nearly quadrupling the number removed in 2022.
Kominfo Minister Budi Arie disclosed that stern warnings andultimatums were issued to various social media platforms, including Meta inOctober 2023 and X in January 2024. These warnings led toMeta removing 1.65 million online gambling content pieces and 450,000 relatedadvertisements from August to October 2023.
Indonesia's law governing electronictransactions and information prohibits online gambling, imposingsevere penalties of up to ten years imprisonment and fines of up to 10 billionRp (645,000 USD) for operators found guilty of operating gambling sites./.
