Meta Agrees To Indonesia Tech Licensing Rules After Blocking Warning

Meta Platforms Incorporated's Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp have signed up to Indonesia's new licensing rules for tech firms, according to Indonesian government records. The move comes a day before the compliance deadline issued by the government. Failure to comply with the new rules would result in the platforms being blocked in the country, the IT ministry had earlier informed Meta,

The compliance rules issued in late 2020, requires social media platforms to disclose data of certain users and take down content deemed unlawful, or that "disturbs public order" within four hours if urgent, or 24 hours in other cases.

However, Twitter Incorporated was not amongst the list of social media platforms that had registered to comply with the IT ministry order. Chinese company ByteDance-owned short video sharing platform, TikTok, and Swedish audio streaming and media services provider, had earlier registered to comply with the order.

Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, a senior Indonesian ministry official, said that "non-compliant firms would lose out in the long run and would be reprimanded, fined, then eventually blocked in Indonesia."

"If they don't sign up, it's their loss. That means they don't see Indonesia as their market potential," he added during a media briefing.

Google, Twitter and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Source: Reuters)