Jakarta vs the internet: Indonesia’s gamble with digital freedom
As the government demands global tech firms like Cloudflare bend to its will, critics say it’s ‘burning the rice barn to kill the rats’
When Jakarta warned last month that it could block major platforms like Cloudflare and Wikipedia, the move was justified as a crackdown on online gambling – a vice officially outlawed in the world’s largest Muslim-majority nation.
But for tech industry players and free-speech advocates, the move was something else entirely: another step in the state’s steady expansion of power over the digital realm.
In theory, the rule helps authorities track and manage illicit online activity. In practice, critics say it hands sweeping powers to the government to decide which platforms stay visible and which may vanish overnight from Indonesia’s internet.