Indonesia blocks Telegram application

Indonesia's Communications and Informatics Minister, Rudiantara was quoted by local media today as saying it took stern action after discovering that the social media channel was engaged in excessive negative communication.

He cited negative content such as propaganda of radicalism, terrorism, hate speech, ways to assemble bombs, ways to perform attacks, improper images and others which were in conflict with the laws of Indonesia.

"In Telegram, we found 17,000 pages containing terrorism, radicalism, bomb making, and others; they are all there, so it should be blocked, because we are anti radicalism," he said.

Yesterday, he announced the Indonesian government's move to restrict Telegram in Indonesia despite application maker Pavel Durov’s request for clarification on the government's actions.

Rudiantara said his party had submitted the findings of Telegram’s content in Indonesia to Indonesian security and defence forces.

He said Indonesian National Army chief Gatot Nurmantyo, National Police chief Tito Karnavian and Presidential chief-of-staff Teten Masduki agreed to the move.

However, the minister's statement did not mention the enforcement date of the application restriction but several telecom operators in the country confirmed that the application could not be accessed since yesterday.

Telegram is a free chat application that allows users to send secret chat messages that are allegedly safe to use in addition to being able to load pictures, videos, send documents or send locations.

Telegram is operated by Telegram Messenger LLP owned by Pavel Durov, a Russian businessman, which can be used in computers and smartphones.