The government of Indonesia has limited its citizens from accessing the popular messaging app Telegram, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.
“The government has long observed Telegram and we are a country that prioritizes the safety of our nation, our people,” Indonesia’s President Joko Widodo said over the weekend.
The country’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology made the move because militants are reportedly using the application to recruit and instruct Indonesians on how to carry out terrorist attacks. The government threatened to completely block access to the app if it didn’t develop features that help sort out illegal content.
“We are forming a dedicated team of moderators with knowledge of Indonesian culture and language to be able to process reports of terrorist-related content more quickly and accurately,” Pavel Durov, a co-founder of the app, reportedly wrote in a message to his Telegram followers. “Telegram is heavily encrypted and privacy-oriented, but we’re no friends of terrorists—in fact, every month we block thousands of ISIS-related public channels…We’re constantly striving to be more efficient at preventing terrorist propaganda, and are always open to ideas on how to get better at this.”
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