JAKARTA, Indonesia — Keeping with its staunch anti-porn policy, the Indonesian government banned video sharing site Vimeo for containing nudity, creating a public outcry in a country considered to be one of the world’s largest users of social media.
A 2008 Indonesian law defines porn as any content that includes nudity, or nudity-like content.
Censorship crusader, Information and Communication Minister Tiffatul Sembiring said in a statement that the move was sparked by public complaints. He cited 15,000 videos tagged with words related to nudity and ordered all Indonesia-based ISPs to block Vimeo.
Sembiring reportedly sent a letter asking Vimeo to block the “explicit” content.
"We hope Vimeo would respond well to our request for stricter content filters for its video materials in Indonesia," Sembiring said.
In a Twitter response Vimeo said, "It seems Vimeo is blocked for some Indonesian users, but it's on the Indonesian side and we can't unblock it." Vimeo’s guidelines prohibit porn but allows artistic and non-sexual nudity.
Vimeo joins a list of 119 sites banned for the content in question.
Sembiring’s attack on porn has been ongoing since he ordered the shut down of more than 1 million porn sites in 2012.