Indonesia removes 43,063 pieces of online gaming content in first six days of January

Online gambling is illegal in Indonesia.

Indonesia.- Molly Prabawaty, acting general director of Public Communication and Media at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Technology (Komdigi), has announced that between January 1 and January 6, her ministry acted against 43,063 pieces of digital content related to online gambling.

Probawaty reported that from October 20, 2024, to January 6, 2025, the Komidigi Ministry blocked as many as 711,522 similar items in response to reports received from the public and institutions.

The total comprised 652,147 website links and IP addresses, 29,964 accounts on Meta platforms, 17,836 instances on file-sharing platforms, 6,842 on Google and YouTube, 4,075 on X, 435 on Telegram and 219 on TikTok.

She then said that the government has removed around 5.5 million online gambling-related digital ads since 2017. According to Antara News, this operation targeted several Instagram accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers that were promoting and linking to online gambling sites.

Gambling in Indonesia is illegal for both citizens and foreigners. Several ministers are collaborating with the Financial Services Authority (OJK) and the Financial Transaction Reports and Analysis Center (PPATK) to stop the use of payment and banking systems for online gambling. The government has also implemented a monitoring system using artificial intelligence to detect websites associated with online gambling.

Last December, Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Digital Affairs met with the PPATK and mobile operators to discuss two potential actions against illegal online gambling: a public awareness campaign to communicate that gambling can cause financial difficulties and a measure to prevent people from paying for gambling via phone credits. Further technical meetings will be held to develop an implementation plan.

Online gambling is illegal in Indonesia. Indonesia.- Molly Prabawaty, acting general director of Public Communication and Media at the Ministry of Communication and Digital Technology (Komdigi), has announced that between January…