Indonesia minister threatens to shut down X over adult content

Reddit is blocked in Indonesia because of its reputation for porn. I've lived in Indonesia for four years. It's mildly annoying to do a Google search, see anything from Reddit, and have to fire up a VPN to read it.

Many ordinary people in Indonesia browse porn on Twitter because porn sites are blocked by ISPs. Most people who browse Twitter porn on cellphones in Indonesia can't afford to sign up for a fee-required VPN.

A few years ago I might have felt upset that blocking access to Twitter limits awareness of controversies around human rights, corruption, or over-development. Now I see activists and opinions on Instagram so maybe Twitter is no longer so useful as a public forum. And any forum can now be polluted and manipulated.

Last month Elon Musk was on stage with various government ministers at the World Water Forum in Bali announcing government authorization of StarLink for Internet access in Indonesia. I wonder if the license requires StarLink to limit access to banned sites including Elon's own X. How are they handling that?

I think John Gilmore's statement that "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it" is becoming more wishful than factual.

Seems like a test of dedication to Freedom of Speech, if you ask me.

Another day, another nanny government block request...