Indonesia threatens to block WhatsApp over sexual content

Ministry official Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan said the government has sent three notices to WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook. (Pixabay photo)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Indonesian authorities say they will block access to the popular WhatsApp instant messaging app if it doesn’t remove sexually explicit content.

The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology said Tuesday it has already asked internet companies to block domain names used by Tenor, which provides animated image files known as GIFs through WhatsApp.

Ministry official Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan said the government has sent three notices to WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, to remove pornographic content and would block the app if there’s no response by Wednesday.

Indonesia blocked web versions of the messaging app Telegram in July because it included chat groups for Islamic State group supporters. It lifted the partial ban after Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov visited Indonesia in August and agreed on efforts to remove radical content.