Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology has summoned representatives of social media platform X to discuss stricter measures against illegal gambling ads.
The summons was acknowledged by the Singapore office of the social media firm, formerly known as Twitter, and came on the behest of Budie Arie, Indonesia’s communication and informatics minister. Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, the Director General of Informatics Applications at the ministry, also confirmed the step and expressed concerns over the recurrent appearance of online gambling adverts on X, despite previous warnings.
The ministry wants to see X develop and deploy more advanced methods to detect and automatically handle gambling related content without there being a need to manually report posts that are in apparent breach of local regulations.
Pangerapan stated that the usual procedure is to issue notices to remove offensive content. “We notify them to take down, but if it’s repeated, it’s tiring, so we ask them to develop (automated procedures) so that if similar content is found, we don’t need to ask them again, and the content is automatically removed,” he said.
Indonesia has long been known as an attractive market for online gambling operators willing to target its young and growing population. The upcoming talks between X and the Indonesian government aim to pave the way for better enforcement against illegal online gambling ads targeting citizens of the country. Last year alone, authorities blocked almost half a million websites and other gambling ads.
