Facing operational ban due to non-compliance of IT rules by failing to register under new licensing rules in Indonesia, the US payments company PayPal on Wednesday announced to register as an electronic systems operator in Indonesia.
According to the company now all its customers across Indonesia can access its services freely. The Indonesian government on Monday announced to block the access to eight major online platforms, including Yahoo, PayPal and Dota, as they have failed to register for licensing.
This comes weeks after Indonesia introduced new technology reforms and urged the global tech companies to register under new licensing rules.
The government authorities last month also warned the top tech players operating in the country to comply with the new norms and failing to register may risk blocking.
PayPal was one of several websites that Indonesia blocked at the weekend because of their failure to comply with new licensing rules. Earlier the companies were given a July deadline to register under new rules that would allow authorities to compel platforms to disclose data of certain users and take down content deemed unlawful or that ‘disturbs public order' within four hours if urgent, and 24 hours if not.
Johnny G. Plate, Indonesia's communications minister, on Wednesday urged people to avoid using unregistered services “to minimize a loss that may incur, if…illegal acts occur in those private services.”
The Communications ministry said it also unblocked access to services of the search engine Yahoo and video-game company Valve Corporation, including Steam and Dota 2, on Tuesday after it said it had blocked them on Saturday.
The new licensing rules have courted controversy as activists and the public fear that the government may police social media content. Though the licensing rules were first introduced in 2020, companies like Meta Platforms Inc and its units – which include Instagram and WhatsApp – as well as Alphabet Inc's Google registered just hours or days before the deadline in late July. Spotify , Netflix , and ByteDance's TikTok have also signed up.
