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Censorship Government The Internet Your Rights Online

In Advance of Ramadan, Indonesian Gov't Starts Massive Censorship Push 184

Posted by timothy from the night-time-is-for-snacking dept.
An anonymous reader writes "The Indonesian government has blocked access to 1 million pornographic websites in advance of Ramadan, the country's holy month. Internet censorship is nothing new in Indonesia, but the scale of this particular restriction is unprecedented. Apparently this is only the beginning. Minister Tifatul Sembiring said Wednesday his office would target more sites through the country's holy month, and beyond."
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In Advance of Ramadan, Indonesian Gov't Starts Massive Censorship Push More

In Advance of Ramadan, Indonesian Gov't Starts Massive Censorship Push

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  • Isn't Ramadan a Muslim holiday? How is it "the country's holy month"?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Google?

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam_in_Indonesia

      Islam is the dominant religion in Indonesia, which also has a larger Muslim population than any other country in the world, with approximately 202.9 million identified as Muslim (88.2% of the total population) as of 2009.

    • Re:Maybe I'm missing something (Score:5, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20, 2012 @06:55PM (#40719849)

      Because Islam is the state religion.

      • Re:Maybe I'm missing something (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 20, 2012 @07:32PM (#40720141)

        Actually it isn't in Indonesia. The country is founded on it's five principles "Pancasila"
        The belief in monotheism is part of the constitution,...
        HOWEVER, Islam is not the state religion, despite the overwhemling majority of citizens claiming to be Muslim.
        In fact Atheism is illegal in the country.

        It's not so surprising when the population mostly still believes in ghosts and spirits.

        • Re:Maybe I'm missing something (Score:4, Insightful)

          by pwizard2 ( 920421 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @07:51PM (#40720229)

          In fact Atheism is illegal in the country.

          I wonder how they enforce that. All someone would have to do is not openly admit to being an atheist.

          The sooner the world gets rid of religion, the better off we will be. Religion holds us back... for the first time ever in history, the combined knowledge of humanity is available in one place for those who care to look for it and yet these theocracies throw it away in favor of blind faith in primitive mythology. Sure, they're just blocking porn right now, but what stops them from blocking anything that undermines their power? It's absolutely sad that some 7th century Arab tribesman's scam to get money, power, and women has persisted all the way to the 21st century. Christianity is not much better, however I give it credit for not being in the "killing people" phase anymore.

          • Re:Maybe I'm missing something (Score:4, Informative)

            by lordshipmayhem ( 1063660 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @08:24PM (#40720435)
            This [persecution.org] is how - jailing atheists and closing Christian churches.

          • Re:Maybe I'm missing something (Score:5, Insightful)

            by causality ( 777677 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @08:54PM (#40720565)

            In fact Atheism is illegal in the country.

            I wonder how they enforce that. All someone would have to do is not openly admit to being an atheist. The sooner the world gets rid of religion, the better off we will be. Religion holds us back... for the first time ever in history, the combined knowledge of humanity is available in one place for those who care to look for it and yet these theocracies throw it away in favor of blind faith in primitive mythology. Sure, they're just blocking porn right now, but what stops them from blocking anything that undermines their power? It's absolutely sad that some 7th century Arab tribesman's scam to get money, power, and women has persisted all the way to the 21st century. Christianity is not much better, however I give it credit for not being in the "killing people" phase anymore.

            Religion isn't the problem. Using the force of law (i.e. men with guns) to enforce your brand of morality on others is the problem.

            Religion is only one excuse for doing this. "For your safety" or "for the children" are others. The process is the same. The excuse is just that -- an excuse. It's all about power, control, and trying to force everyone to be like yourself because you are too insecure to be an individual. These are people who derive security from being among the like-minded. Consequently they feel threatened by someone who does not agree.

            These are petty, egotistical little tyrants. The thing to understand about ego is that in its own eyes, it is never wrong and never at fault. Therefore, if my insecurity causes me to feel threatened, I absolutely cannot attribute that to insecurity or any other fault within myself (even though that would lead to personal growth*). I must blame it on the person who makes me feel insecure by believing something I don't. It's a scapegoat. If I happen to have political power, then I can put the force of law behind this. If not, I can cry about how "offended" I am and try to shame the other person into submission.

            Most people are like this, unfortunately. This is part of why the world is the way that it is. That's why when most people find a radio program or TV show offensive, simply not listening or watching isn't good enough for them. They have to try to take it off the air. That's why people who don't drink alcohol want to support "no alcohol sales on Sunday" and other stupid, easily circumvented laws (stock up Saturday). It's why people who don't do drugs support throwing people in jail and ruining their lives over possession of a plant, even though they weren't driving intoxicated or otherwise endangering anyone.

            They're cowards who don't have the strength to be individuals. That's why they cannot allow others to be individuals and make their own personal choices. Deep down they know they're cowards, so they try to appear big and fearsome. State power certainly satisfies that requirement, so they ally themselves to it. They're compensating** for personal shortcomings instead of facing them. The hardest part to understand is that these are subconscious processes -- the people themselves believes they're sincere and would probably pass any polygraph test. It's basic denial that becomes "fact" when it goes on long enough. The only exception to that would be most of the politicians, who view these cowards as little more than useful idiots who can be exploited to advance state power.


            * Avoiding the introspection and never developing the courage to face one's own faults and work to remedy them makes these things self-perpetuating and self-reinforcing.

            ** Compensation is not a deliberate, planned process. It's more like a form of energy. Being energy, it is neither created nor destroyed; it changes form. Their cowardice changes into the form of support for bad laws that deserve none. The fear and ignorance that makes "for the children" laws possible is also like this.

            • however i fear the egotism of blind strident individualism just as much as egotism of herd behavior

              it is the difference between this person (ok):

              "i'm just exercising my personal freedom" (smokes weed)

              and this person (not ok):

              "i'm just exercising my personal freedom" (turns car ignition, drunk)

              you can do whatever you please in this world, just as long as it doesn't hurt someone else. the "just as long as it doesn't hurt someone else" is something a lot of people have a problem grasping

              freedom, and responsibi

          • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

            by artor3 ( 1344997 )

            Religions are just a source of philosophy for people without the time or inclination to ponder all of life's questions themselves. If you have the time to read over the works of philosophers and come up with a consistent viewpoint, more power to you. Most people don't, and those people can therefore either live without any self-consistent views on morality, or they can adopt a ready-made set in the form of a religion.

            Consistent morality is important. Without it, people will just come up with a rationaliz

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by khallow ( 566160 )

              but people like Dawkins just make things worse by making everything so damn confrontational.

              Socrates was a master at this sort of confrontation. And that's part of the reason he's heralded as the greatest of philosophers. How do you know a morality or philosophy is consistent? Because you test it. And one such way, a very effective one I might add, is via confrontation.

              • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

                by artor3 ( 1344997 )

                You're (intentionally) equivocating. The Socratic method is to ask pointed questions as a means of testing a philosophy. Polemics, such as those written by Dawkins, make facile, feel-good arguments to make their readers happy. Both are confrontational, but one is constructive, while the other is all about running the other guy down.

                • Re: (Score:3)

                  by khallow ( 566160 )

                  You're (intentionally) equivocating. The Socratic method is to ask pointed questions as a means of testing a philosophy. Polemics, such as those written by Dawkins, make facile, feel-good arguments to make their readers happy. Both are confrontational, but one is constructive, while the other is all about running the other guy down.

                  Given the only difference between the two styles is mostly a matter of subjective opinion, why shouldn't I intentionally equivocate here? Socrates apparently ran a lot of people down during his career ass professional gadfly. And frankly, getting your belief system run down seems a good way to test its weaknesses.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by etash ( 1907284 )

              Religions are just a source of philosophy for people without the time or inclination to ponder all of life's questions themselves. If you have the time to read over the works of philosophers and come up with a consistent viewpoint, more power to you. Most people don't, and those people can therefore either live without any self-consistent views on morality, or they can adopt a ready-made set in the form of a religion.

              Consistent morality is important. Without it, people will just come up with a rationalization for whatever benefits them at this moment, with no regard for the long term implications. That path gets you state-endorsed torture, it gets you anti-death penalty people supporting drone strikes and assassinations, it gets you anti-homosexual pundits demonizing people when the very same Biblical verse against homosexuality also lists publicly denouncing someone as equally sinful, and so on.

              But hey, religious people are behind all of those examples! Yeah, that was on purpose. Did you notice how as soon as a "Christian" leader decided torture was okay, all his supporters went along with it? It's because they aren't truly religious, they just like belonging to a special club. They don't actually care about the morality aspect. I don't want to specifically pick on Christians either. The Muslim suicide bombers and their leaders are in the same camp. They don't actually care about the faith, they just care about their special club -- the leaders like the power, the followers like the sense of purpose. Take away the religion, and they'll just come up with something else to rally behind... maybe race, maybe economic policy, maybe whether they eat their bread butter side up or down. Atheism doesn't solve anything. What we need is people to care more about finding a consistent moral basis.

              Now, of course, organized religion is a problem, particularly when accepted without question. Any time that you accept a ready-made philosophy from a powerful organization, you have to assume that the organization has designed that philosophy to protect its interests. For example, contrast the core tenets of Judeo-Christian religions (don't kill, don't steal, etc.) with some of the lesser points (e.g. tithing). It's pretty clear that certain ideas are important, while others are just there so that some old men in Rome can live comfortably.

              In short, what people should do, for the good of all humanity, is learn the good lessons, throw away the bad ones, and stop treating it as a team sport. This goes for atheists too. There have been great philosophers who didn't believe in a God, but people like Dawkins just make things worse by making everything so damn confrontational. Instead of providing readers with a consistent moral viewpoint, he just strokes their egos and gets rich doing it. No different from the priest who tells his flock their God's chosen people right before passing the hat.

              The whole post is an apology for religion. Of course if we go deep down it's the human nature that it's bad, but religion enhances that aspect of it. About dawkins and him being confrontational, there is no progress with being carebears. Maybe we should heal the horde to their death ? Or - and i want to bring godwin here - should we have become friends with the nazis ? The only way to fix cancer is to remove it, that is, being confrontational with it.

          • Thankfully the world will never get rid of religion. But you already know the problem you are referring to has nothing to do with religion. If it wasn't religion it would be something else.

          • .I wonder how they enforce that. All someone would have to do is not openly admit to being an atheist.

            Well, if that part comes from Sharia, then being an atheist is not a crime - declaring one an atheist is.

            The worldly Islamic Law, in general, is concerned with behavior of people, not their thoughts, on the grounds that certain kinds of behavior provide bad example for the others who would then go on and commit sins. So, presumably, if you're an atheist, or, say, a Muslim apostate, then God will punish you with fiery hell in the afterlife, and that takes care of that. But if you go around telling people th

        • Re:Maybe I'm missing something (Score:5, Insightful)

          by PPH ( 736903 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @08:00PM (#40720287)

          In fact Atheism is illegal in the country.

          Blessed be FSM. RAmen.

    • Before you ask, yes, I call Lent a "holiday", too.

    • Re:Maybe I'm missing something (Score:4, Informative)

      by Sir_Sri ( 199544 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @07:24PM (#40720079)

      It's the holy month of Ramadan where Muslims fast for a whole month and then have a big feast at the end of it.

      Because it's a month long 'holiday' doesn't really do it justice. Life still goes on, just at strange hours and in strange ways. I've had islamic scholars tell me that part of the point is to experience hunger, so when some Muslims switch to being nocturnal they're missing the point. But that happens a lot of places, the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law so to speak.

      Technically Indonesia is not an islamic state, they recognize a couple of religions (some of Islam, some of Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism), but as is practically the case, with just shy of 90% of the population being (or at least claiming to be) Muslim you can't really get around Islamic tradition.

      • Re:Maybe I'm missing something (Score:4, Informative)

        by ThatsMyNick ( 2004126 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @08:08PM (#40720333)

        They actually feast at the end of everyday, not just the end of the month. It is very often a community feast (called Iftar), where friends & neighbors (even the ones that are well off) are invited. I agree with you on the rest, though.

      • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

        by myowntrueself ( 607117 )

        It's the holy month of Ramadan where Muslims fast for a whole month and then have a big feast at the end of it.

        Because it's a month long 'holiday' doesn't really do it justice. Life still goes on, just at strange hours and in strange ways. I've had islamic scholars tell me that part of the point is to experience hunger, so when some Muslims switch to being nocturnal they're missing the point. But that happens a lot of places, the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law so to speak.

        Technically Indonesia is not an islamic state, they recognize a couple of religions (some of Islam, some of Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism), but as is practically the case, with just shy of 90% of the population being (or at least claiming to be) Muslim you can't really get around Islamic tradition.

        Its far from a holiday and more a festival of self abuse. I worked under an executive who was a Muslim. During Ramadan he fasted himself almost into a coma every day. By 5 pm he was unable to think straight and could barely stand. He fucked up a number of critical contracts due to this. He made it very very hard on everyone else in the company.

        Guess what he had for breakfast? A couple of fried eggs. It was completely retarded.

        • More he was retarded and enjoyed the self-abuse. Most practicing muslims do fine, I have worked closely with many of them.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Sir_Sri ( 199544 )

          That's actually the point from what I understand. You're supposed to suffer and know what it's like to be poor and to be able to rejoice every night when you feast. It is supposed to teach you humility, so you know what it's like for the poor wage slave who has to do that all year round because he/she can't afford food every day.

          This runs into the first problem, which is that Islam was developed with a particular latitude in mind, and the rules don't work as well far north or south of it, and secondly, lo

        • Guess what he had for breakfast? A couple of fried eggs. It was completely retarded.

          Then it's his fault for not having a proper breakfast, isn't it? Him fasting has nothing to do with it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AdamJS ( 2466928 )

      Like Christmas in the US. A month is a bit excessive though.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sinan ( 10073 )

        --Like Christmas in the US. A month is a bit excessive though.

        Yeah, but it's not like it's every year.It's only every 354 days.

    • Isn't Ramadan a Muslim holiday? How is it "the country's holy month"?

      Ramadan isn't the holiday, since it lasts more or less a month. Now even if you're not familiar with Islamic religious feasts, just imagine the consequences of an entire nation taking their vacation at the same time. The holiday (and holy day) is called Eid ul-Fitr [wikipedia.org], which marks the end of the Ramadan.

      Eid ul-Fitr has been compared to Christmas. I think it's closer to Easter Sunday, since both holy days mark the end of some sort abstinence,

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by bky1701 ( 979071 )
      Indonesia is essentially a Muslim theocracy. It is illegal to be atheist; people are in jail for it right now. Other religions aren't exactly safe, either.

  • North Sumatra (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Simbiring is a name from North Sumatra. Perhaps he doesn't like the internet at all?

  • Please draw...... (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward

    your best ascii art mohamed below.

  • Why bother? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by fuzzyfuzzyfungus ( 1223518 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @07:05PM (#40719935) Journal

    Given the libido-suppressive effects of caloric restriction, wouldn't it make more sense to step up their precious little moral crusade(jihad?) during all non-ramadan periods and slack off during that month?

    • You misunderstood. You actually feast on spicy specially-made food in the evening, making you more satisfied about everything, and making you more horny.

      • This is very confusing. I wish someone would just make a plot of horniness versus day of the year so we could see whether there was a spike around Ramadan. This is slashdot, surely there's enough horny geeks to be able to pull this off. And now that i've mentioned it, i wonder if there's some way to objectively measure horniness?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bky1701 ( 979071 )
      Fasting is not really fasting. You fast in the day, have a buffet nightly at sundown. It's one of those weird things religions do while saying they do something else.

      • Re:Why bother? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by ThatsMyNick ( 2004126 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @09:39PM (#40720807)

        Er, they do fast. They fast for 12 hours a day, without water or food. If you try it for one day, you will understand how difficult it is (and you would also understand what being hungry means, which basically is the purpose). You start running low on blood sugar in about 6 hours, you feeling really thirsty in about 5-6 hours. And all of this, while you perform your regular duties, which is really tough when you are low on blood sugar and thirsty.

  • Did they block the Internet, or was it the World Wide Web? [slashdot.org]

  • You can take away their rights, and you can take away their money, but take away their porn, and the people will revolt. :-D

    • You got that right.

      If a religion is to be followed faithfully, how does it help to "force" someone to follow it? Religion and faith HAVE to be a choice or else it is neither. These religious zealots aren't particularly religious are they?

    • Re:I'm expecting another Arab Spring there real so (Score:5, Informative)

      by grcumb ( 781340 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @07:31PM (#40720135) Homepage Journal

      You can take away their rights, and you can take away their money, but take away their porn, and the people will revolt. :-D

      *sigh*

      I think it would be fairer to say that you can take away their money, their rights and their lives, but that story won't get posted on Slashdot until it involves porn.

      The Indonesian government and military have tried to maintain a complete media blackout on the ongoing human rights abuses [westpapuamedia.info] -including torture and murder- in the occupied territory of West Papua, which was annexed [wikipedia.org] while the world looked away. This oppression has been going on for a generation, but nobody chooses to care, because of Indonesia's status as the largest pro-US muslim country in the world.

      But yeah, boobs. Let's support those horny Indonesians by slashdotting bringbacktheporn.com [bringbacktheporn.com]. That'll get the add revenue going.

    • You can take away their rights, and you can take away their money, but take away their porn, and the people will revolt. :-D

      I guess you don't know much about Indonesian history then, they overthrew their dictator 14 years ago. That said, even in the 80's Indonesia was one of the most liberal of muslim countries, and since 1998 have become one of the most democratic as well.

      From a western perspective they still have a long way to go, but they are a million miles ahead of the "Arab Spring" countries.

      It's a beautiful country full of beautiful, kind, gentle people. Please learn more before you shoot your mouth off.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        You do realize that my post was entirely in jest, right?

        • Re: (Score:3)

          by dbIII ( 701233 )
          Yes, but there are regional revolts still under way in parts of Indonesia and an earlier major one didn't really stop until the Tsunami.

      • There is a lot of discontent in the populace though. The country has large muslim majority, which fairly poor, and a Chinese & Indian minority that is largely wealthy. Now and they you will see this discontent in politics (politicians appease the wealthy for their money, and during elections somehow try to appease the majority). I wouldnt be surprised to see riots break out if this continues (and censorship, might just be the tipping point). I agree GP's comparison to Libya was wrong, but portraying a a

        • Re:I'm expecting another Arab Spring there real so (Score:4, Interesting)

          by Panoptes ( 1041206 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @09:07PM (#40720635)
          ThatsMyNick makes valid points; let me take them further. Here in Indonesia, come Ramadan there's always a mad rush for clerics and politicos to do an "I'm holier than thou" act. Draconian pledges and swingeing action plans that turn out to be mere wishful thinking thunder from the media and every soapbox in the country - but they're all chimeras, sops to the gangs of religious fanatics that plague Indonesia. In reality this is one of the most tolerant Muslim communities in the world, but the proverbial few bad apples spoil the barrel.

          Indonesia is in the Internet stone age. The country is rated near the very bottom of Internet provision - way below many third-world and developing countries. Those of us who 'enjoy' broadband pay through the nose for a seriously flawed and inadequate service, and we're laughing out loud at the very notion that the muppets who run our IT services can filter anything other than their monthly pay cheques.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mashiki ( 184564 )

      You mean like the arab spring in egypt? Yeah, looks like that one is only going to put womens rights back a few hundred years. Cheer it on man, cheer it on.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by khallow ( 566160 )
        Eh, a similar "spring" happened in Europe in 1848. It didn't lead to a lot of positive near future change, only a few countries went more democratic (though the UK was a notable example), but I think it was a step towards the present mostly democratic and peaceful Europe that exists today. So sure, it doesn't look all that great in the short term, but we may feel differently about it a century or two from now.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Mashiki ( 184564 )

          Yeah something similar also happened in Russia and China too. Last time I looked the body count was ~250 million dead in their own purges removing "undesirables" and I'm sure that worked out well for them as well. Here's the thing a lot of people forget, Islam isn't just a religion. It's a military, and political doctrine as well. Not to mention a few other things.

          And in countries where ruling parties have it as the forefront in, and of, the law of the land. People suffer, and those that suffer the mos

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by khallow ( 566160 )

            Yeah something similar also happened in Russia and China too.

            And a good portion of those body counts are due to ideas hatched in the 1848 "spring". I don't intend this comparison to be fully comforting, but rather to point out a similar situation which in the long term bettered the lives of hundreds of millions, but at terrible cost.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by fnj ( 64210 )

          I can tell you there is a very tiny chance any significant number of readers will feel differently about it in a century, and zero readers will feel differently about it in two centuries.

          That is simply because very, very few readers will still be alive in a century, and none of them will be so in two centuries.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by khallow ( 566160 )

            That is simply because very, very few readers will still be alive in a century, and none of them will be so in two centuries.

            Well this off-topic, but what do you base that speculation on? And what makes you think readers won't still be around in two centuries?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bky1701 ( 979071 )
      The Arab Spring ended up installing Islamist governments. I think you need to pay more attention to world events. This is certainly what the people of Indonesia want; that is the problem.
  • With filtering in place, the fact they allowed access to pornographic websites before Ramadan is what confuses me. Was this like the Indonesian Internet version of Mardi Gras?

  • No porn on holy days.

  • One million? (Score:5, Informative)

    by TimHunter ( 174406 ) on Friday July 20, 2012 @07:21PM (#40720059)

    Okay, possibly I'm stupid or out of touch, but I've been around the interwebs for a while and seen my share of stuff. It just doesn't seem likely that there are a million porn sites. I wouldn't have guessed 1 million in the world, and certainly not 1 million that the Indonesian government can block.

    Here's an article in Forbes article that says

    In 2010, out of the million most popular (most trafficked) websites in the world, 42,337 were sex-related sites.

    That's a far cry from 1 million. (http://www.forbes.com/sites/julieruvolo/2011/09/07/how-much-of-the-internet-is-actually-for-porn/ [forbes.com])

    Maybe they mean 1 million pages. Or maybe there are a million sites that only host a single drawing of Mickey banging Minnie doggie-style. Or maybe they mean something different by the word "pornographic." But 1 million pornhubs? 1 million redtubes? I'm having a hard time believing this.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by bky1701 ( 979071 )
      The fact you only think of the major ones does not mean there are minor. There are several huge sites which eclipse the others, but a million porn sites is an incredibly low-ball number considering the number of sites on the internet. I am not sure how to go about getting statistics on this, unfortunately.

    • Wait wait wait.

      Your argument is that there are less than 1 million porn sites, and you cite an article that examines ONLY one million sites. Do I even need to point out the flaw in that reasoning?

      Still, let's suppose that your 42,000/1,000,000 figure is true. There are somewhere between 300,000,000 and 6,800,000,000 websites, total, which (using naive extrapolation) gives between 13,000,000 and 290,000,000 pornographic websites. And I for one would bet that porn tends more to the "many sites with low traffi

  • It will be interesting to see where the wrath of god strikes after this.
  • Not that very many here care, but it started yesterday.
  • Religious governments are a bad idea. Religious governments are a bad idea. Religious governments are a bad idea.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by dbIII ( 701233 )
      They are less of a religious government than what you have in the USA but they still do things like this to keep some religious voters happy.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by bky1701 ( 979071 )
      Yeah, it's ashame most countries have them.
  • Maybe they should block sites where they sell, show or discuss food, too, in order to avoid tempting them.

  • "The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers." -- Princess Leia

    http://youtu.be/-wntX-a3jSY [youtu.be]

    "Did you know that if you put a little hat on a snowball, can last a long time in Hell?" -- Dogbert.

    http://i.imgur.com/iFd5w.jpg [imgur.com]

    --
    BMO

  • Exercise in Futility (Score:4, Informative)

    by bimozx ( 2689433 ) on Saturday July 21, 2012 @03:29AM (#40722119)
    Indonesian here. The article exaggerates a little on how much it really impacts the people here. Most people here don't care about it, cause most of them know "Where there is a will, there is a way.". They will always find a way to circumvent these restrictions. In fact I just did, change the DNS server, and you're done. So yeah, the actual situation here is not as bad as the article make it out to be .

  • A million porn sites? They're not even scratching the surface.

  • Business as usual, move along... (Score:4, Informative)

    by MadCat ( 796 ) <[benvanstaveren] [at] [gmail.com]> on Saturday July 21, 2012 @08:09AM (#40723015)

    I live in Indonesia, just so we've got that out of the way (read that as: I know what I'm talking about). This is business as usual, these "blockades" are nothing more than some cheap DNS tricks, and depending on your ISP either changing your DNS servers to Google or OpenDNS or just running a little proxy will get you around it just fine.

    The only reason this is news is that the presidential elections are going to be happening in 2014 and a lot of officials are already jockeying for position, considering the current president is most likely on his way out in a hurry. The minister in question (Tifatul Sembiring) is also a totally technically clueless guy, so he just dictates "block stuff" and Indonesia being Indonesia, ISP's may or may not actually get it right and block things.

    So, just business as usual, move along...

    P.S. It's not "Indonesia's holy month" by the way, it's an Islamic thing, it's being observed world wide.

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