Indonesia blocks X.com site after Twitter rebrand, citing porn & gambling restrictions

The domain was previously used by sites to disseminate pornography and gambling content.

Keyla Supharta | July 27, 2023, 01:45 PM

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Indonesia has blocked access to Elon Musk's X.com website over porn and gambling concerns, Aljazeera reported.

Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) said that the social media site, formerly known as Twitter, was restricted as the domain had previously been used by sites that disseminated pornography and gambling content.

This means that Indonesians apparently cannot access the platform, which reportedly has about 24 million users among a population of 270 million.

Indonesia has strict laws against negative content and websites, with the government actively blocking website domains that do not adhere to the country's regulations.

According to Kominfo, the ministry has taken down 846,047  online gambling content between 2018 and Jul. 19 2023.

Usman Kansong, the director general of Kominfo, said that the government is in contact with X to clarify the nature of the site.

"We spoke with representatives from Twitter and they will send a letter to us to say that X.com will be used by Twitter," Kansong told local media on Tuesday.

Risky rebranding

Musk earlier announced that Twitter will be renamed as X, representing his plans to create an "everything app".

He defended the rebranding, saying that the Twitter name only made sense when the social media site just had a 140-character limit, "like birds tweeting".

Musk also unveiled the company's new logo: a white X on a black background.

Image via @X/Twitter.

However, business analysts considered undoing years of branding behind Twitter's blue bird risky, while marketing and branding experts said the move might compromise Twitter's name recognition.

"Only a few brands have become verbs or seen themselves referred to in global news outlets as often as Twitter has," Matt Rhodes, strategy lead at the creative agency House 337, told Reuters.

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Top image adapted from @X/Twitter and Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images.