Indonesia threatens to ban Telegram after Pavel Durov's arrest

Indonesia is threatening to ban the Telegram messenger platform due to its insufficient moderation of illegal content. Budi Arie Setiadi, Indonesia's Minister of Communication and Informatics, says that the Indonesian government is concerned over the distribution of illicit content on the platform, including the promotion of online gambling and the spreading of pornography.

The local authorities are also considering the ban on another app, Bigo. Bigo is a global live streaming app owned by Singapore-based company Bigo Technology, alongside the Telegram messenger app for similar claims

Telegram refuses to improve its regulations after multiple requests

Budi reportedly said that both Telegram and Bigo only paid lip service to the Indonesian government with promises to improve their content moderation following, but ultimately failing to comply with their promises to better moderation measures and issue a resolution.

Budi said that the Indonesian authorities would still need to conduct more studies before they can fully ban both applications. He is giving his last warning to both countries, saying that if any more evidence of illicit content distribution is found, both the apps will be banned in the country.

Telegram losing a big chunk of subscribers

Needless to say, if the ban were to go through, Telegram would lose a huge chunk of its subscribers. According to Demandage data, Indonesia is the third-biggest country in the world in terms of Telegram usage, with more than 27 million app downloads coming from the country.

As of July 2024, it is recorded that Indonesia is the third largest consumer of Telegram with more than 950 million monthly active users.

The news comes amid Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov being placed under judicial supervision in France following a court appearance linked to his alleged criminal offenses related to his role at Telegram.