The Indonesian government is blocking traffic to major websites and platforms including Steam, Epic Games Store, and Origin.
The fourth-largest country in the world is blocking internet traffic to websites like Paypal and platforms like the online storefronts for Steam, Epic Games Store, and EA’s Origin. The move comes as the government strictly enforces censorship.
Kotaku reports:
Over the weekend, the Indonesian government began the task of blocking any website or service that had failed to register as part of new “internet control” laws. That ended up being a lot, including everything from Steam to the Epic Games Store to Nintendo Online to EA and Ubisoft’s platforms.
Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) took the steps after the introduction of strict new laws, which the government says is part of a crackdown on anything appearing online that is “deemed unlawful,” and which would require any online service platform or provider hosting any such “unlawful” content to remove it within 24 hours (or four if it is deemed to be “urgent”).
In order to abide by those laws, international companies operating in Indonesia needed to have signed up by the weekend, and unsurprisingly given the sweeping powers at play, many have chosen not to, at least for now. As a response, non-participating services have been blocked to Indonesian IPs, which means alongside wider, more mainstream companies like PayPal and Yahoo, a host of gaming platforms have also been cut off.
It’s worth noting that several big tech companies have acceded to the Indonesian government’s demands for strict censorship. Google, Meta (Facebook), and Twitter have all signed up.