August 1, 2022 – The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) has momentarily unblocked PayPal for five days. The application was blocked by the Ministry because it hasn’t registered as an Electronic System Operator (PSE).
Director General of Kominfo’s Applications and Informatics Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan explained the reason why PayPal was momentarily unblocked because there are a lot of suggestions regarding the decision from different parties.
Furthermore, PayPal is one of the financial services most used by people.
“We have given a new policy in which we have temporarily opened PayPal’s website, as of Sunday (31/07) at 8 AM. It can now be used at 10 AM at the latest,” said Samuel in a virtual press conference.
Thus, he hoped that people who are using PayPal are able to transfer their money in the account to another account. This temporary access to PayPal is given by the government for five working days, starting today, Monday (1/8) to Friday.
Kominfo blocks several websites on Saturday
Kominfo blocked PayPal and other websites on Saturday (30/7). These websites are blocked because they haven’t registered as PSE in Indonesia:
- Yahoo
- PayPal (temporarily accessible)
- Epic Games (game distributor platform)
- Steam (game distributor platform)
- Dota (online game)
- Counter Strike (online game)
- Origin (game distributor platform)
These digital platforms are blocked by Kominfo after they didn’t register as a PSE despite being sent a warning letter. This registration obligation is a mandate from the Minister of Communication and Informatics Regulation Number 5 of 2020 concerning Private Scope Electronic System Operators (PSE).
Under the policy, digital platforms that haven’t registered will be considered illegal and their accessibility will be blocked in Indonesia.
PayPal financial service has actually registered and is on the PSE Kominfo page. However, PayPal cannot be accessed and was instead listed as a prohibited site on the Kominfo Positive Trust site.
It’s suspected that PayPal registered on Friday night after Kominfo decided that the financial service was one of the PSE that haven’t registered.
