In Indonesia blocked the Web version of Telegram

The authorities called the messenger "a platform for terrorist propaganda and calls for violence"

On July 14, Indonesia blocked the web version of the Telegram messenger. Officials of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies said that "measures are taken to protect the country." They explained that the messenger is used by terrorists to propagate and disseminate instructions for the manufacture of bombs. The creator of the messenger Pavel Durov announced his readiness to cooperate with the Indonesia authorities for the Telegram unlock.

The Indonesian authorities blocked the web version of the Telegram messenger and promised to block the application if the service did not cease to be a "platform for terrorist propaganda and calls for violence." The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of Indonesia sent providers the requirement to block 11 addresses at which the web version of the messenger is available (among them-T.Me, Telegram.me, Web.telegram.org). “We do this due to the fact that there are many channels in this service, overflowing with radical and terrorist propaganda, instructions for the manufacture of bombs and attacking attacks,” the ministry said in the official statement of the ministry. One of the officials stated that the country would continue to prepare for the complete ban on the messenger if the Telegram administration does not introduce the “unacceptable content” blocking system. “Measures are taken to protect the country,” he said .

“This is strange, we have never received any requests or complaints from the Indonesian government,” Pavel Durov wrote on Twitter to the question of one of the Indonesian users after the first news about the blocking. Several million people use the messenger in the country. They actively discussed the lock on social networks: someone complained that it would be impossible to use stickers due to blocking, others sent the Emoji administration with hearts.

Indonesia is the largest Muslim country in the world. Telegram blocking occurred at the same time as the Islamic State terrorists, losing territory in Syria and Iraq, began to act more actively in Southeast Asia: at the end of May 2017, the militants captured the city in the Philippines; In January 2016, IS supporters staged a series of terrorist attacks in the Indonesian capital of Jakarta, then six people were killed.

As Al-Jazira pointed out , the suspects in terrorist attacks said they had contacted each other and received instructions through Telegram. One of the well -known Indonesian militants and preachers of IS Bahrun uses Telegram to calls for attacks. About the same accusations against Telegram were made in Russia in June 2017. Then, federal television channels came out stories that terrorists are using the messenger; One of them said that two minutes before the explosion in the metro in St. Petersburg in April 2017, the suicide bomber received a message from the coordinator in Telegram.

On July 16, Pavel Durov said that he was ready to cooperate with the House of Indonesia to unlock Telegram. He explained that on the eve of the blocking, Telegram received a list of public channels related to terrorists from the Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies. According to him, the messenger team did not manage to process them. Now all terrorist channels are blocked.

Durov announced the innovations in the monitoring of extremist messages. According to him, a team of moderators who know the Indonesian language and culture will appear in Telegram. In addition, Durov wrote a letter to the Indonesian authorities to establish a direct communication channel, which "will allow more efficiently block terrorist propaganda in the future." “Telegram is well encrypted, but we are not friends of terrorists - every month we block thousands of public channels associated with IG,” Durov said, adding that he was a fan of Indonesia, he has been in it several times and he has many friends there. The Indonesian authorities have not yet publicly responded to Durov.

Daniil Turovsky