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Indonesia Moves to Restrict Online Porn After Steamy Pop Star Sex Video

by Amar Toor on July 14, 2010 at 04:15 PM

model in lingerieWhat do you call a porn-free Internet? Here, we'd say "our worst nightmare," (bad-um), but for Indonesian web surfers, they might soon have to call it "reality." That's because the world's most populous country of Muslim majority is planning on invoking an anti-pornography law to restrict any online fun smut that might soil its citizens' computers.

Gatot Dewa Broto, a spokesman for Indonesia's communications ministry, announced the plan today, and said the move comes as a response to a flood of recent user complaints about indecent material circulating the Web. "We will send a formal request to internet service providers to be more pro-active to every complaint related to pornography because we don't have the instruments to block it," Broto said. According to Reuters, there are roughly 180 Internet providers in Indonesia today, including the two state-run companies, Telkom and Indosat. Broto went on to say that the ministry was still debating whether or not to impose sanctions on those providers who refuse to comply with the porn clamp-down.

Perhaps not coincidentally, today's announcement comes after the viral leak of a sex tape that starred an Indonesian pop star and his celebrity girlfriends. In the West, such a tape would likely go unnoticed. In a country of more than 200 million Muslims, though, it's enough to incite national controversy -- and, apparently, political response.

At the end of the day, it's hard to really fault the Indonesian government for what they're reportedly planning to do. As much as we hate to admit it, pornography is hardly a universal human right. If so many Indonesians really are upset by it, then maybe Indonesian officials should meet that demand. Besides, Bangkok is just a boat ride away. [From: Reuters]

Tags: government, indonesia, islam, legislation, muslim, porn, porn industry, PornIndustry, pornography, sex, top

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