Last week, the Indonesian government banned several online platforms, including Steam, Epic Games Store, and Origin. It happened after the companies failed to comply with a new registration requirement.
According to the rules, tech companies providing services in the country must register with Kominfo, The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of the Republic of Indonesia. Otherwise, those companies face a ban, The Verge reported on July 30.
The deadline was scheduled for July 20, but later the Indonesian authorities decided to give companies five more working days until July 27. As a result, around millions of people lost access to global gaming, payment, and other online services.
Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad noted that Dota 2, CS:GO, Yahoo, and PayPal were among the products blocked in Indonesia. Some media outlets initially reported that Indonesia has also banned Battle.net, but Activision Blizzard’s store is, in fact, on Kominfo’s list of registered platforms.
Quick update for those asking-
The blocks are not permanent, assuming the companies register and comply with the regulation, and Kominfo has already reached out to these companies to ensure compliance and reverse the block.
Here is a list of affected services: pic.twitter.com/6K121xVEMP
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 30, 2022
However, the Indonesian government has agreed to provide users with access to PayPal for five more days starting July 31. But the other services remained banned, with people starting using VPN to bypass the restrictions.
Access to services may be reinstated if they accept requirements of the Indonesian government. As reported by CNN Indonesia, Valve is already in the process of submitting its registration. It means at least Steam (with Dota 2 and CS:GO) may soon be available to local users again.
Indonesian users weren’t happy about the ban on services such as Steam and PayPal. Hashtag “BlokirKominfo” began to gain popularity on Twitter. A lot of people use it to criticize the government’s actions that can harm the local games industry and freelancers getting their payments via PayPal.