"We can confirm that DuckDuckGo has been blocked in Indonesia due to their censorship policy. Unfortunately, there is no current route to unblock, similar to how we have been blocked in China for about a decade now," DuckDuckGo told BleepingComputer via Reuters. So, what should you know about it?
For your information, the ban on the privacy-focused search engine comes after citizens of the country reportedly complained about pornographic content and online gambling from its search results. In January 2024, Indonesia announced that they had acted to block almost 600,000 online gambling portals and took action against 5,000 bank accounts involved in the activity.
In addition, the government has also previously blocked numerous pornography sites, Reddit and Vimeo and imposed temporary or partial restrictions on Tumblr, Telegram, TikTok, Netflix and Badoo. As a result, users in Indonesia have used Virtual Private Network (VPN) software as an alternative to bypass the restrictions. However, the Indonesian government plans to block free VPNs.
We have yet to confirm other details on the subject. We should wait for more confirmation from DuckDuckGo. Who knows? Malaysia might do the same.
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