Indonesian authorities followed India in launching an investigation into Telegram

What’s new? Budi Arie Setiadi, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Informatics, has allowed the possibility of blocking the Telegram messenger in the country. He said that the authorities are concerned about the spread of illegal content on the platform, including gambling and pornography. Singapore-based Bigo Technology’s Bigo Live streaming app could suffer the same fate because of similar suspicions.

Material by Jakarta Globe

What else is known? The official said that both platforms failed to implement better content moderation mechanisms after being notified. Setiadi added that he would personally prefer to restrict both Telegram and Bigo Live, but imposing such measures requires investigations.

“We act based on evidence collected by our team. If we find evidence of pornography or gambling promotion, we will proceed with blocking the platforms,” the minister stressed.

Indonesia is the third-largest country in the world in terms of Telegram users (27 million downloads of the app), behind only India (104 million) and Russia (34 million). The blocking will lead to a significant reduction in the messenger’s active user base, which in July crossed the 950 million mark.

It is noteworthy that two days earlier, a similar investigation against Telegram was launched by the Indian authorities, and the result could also be the blocking of the application in the country. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Digital Affairs are currently investigating the platform for illegal activities such as gambling and extortion.

Both investigations have already started after Telegram CEO Pavel Durov was detained in Paris on August 24. He was held without charge for the maximum possible time — 4 days — before being placed under judicial supervision.

Durov was questioned in connection with an investigation against an unnamed individual accused of a number of crimes, including fraud, drug trafficking and child pornography, and was himself charged with six offenses, including complicity in running an illegal transaction platform, refusing to provide data requested by law enforcement, covering up crimes as part of an organized crime group, and distributing child porn and drugs.

As part of the preventive measure, Durov posted a bail of 5 million EUR for his release, he must check in with the police twice a week. During the investigation, he was banned from leaving the territory of France and all his passports were confiscated.