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VOINews, Jakarta - Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi stated that from 2018 until September 17, 2023, his ministry had handled 3,761,730 items of negative content, ranging from online gambling to pornographic content.

"(They include) as many as 969,308 items of online gambling content, 8,954 items of illegal fintech content, and 1,211,571 items of pornographic content," he detailed in a press release on Tuesday.

According to Setiadi, the ministry had also handled 9,607 findings of gambling sites inserted into government websites.

The minister noted that since July 12, 2023, or the start of his tenure, until September 17, 2023, the ministry had handled 200,216 items of negative content, including 109,090 items of online gambling content, 92 items of fraudulent content, and 18,219 items of pornographic content.

He also drew attention to the findings of 1,931 bank accounts related to gambling.

Setiadi emphasized that his ministry had made several breakthroughs in handling negative content, especially online gambling content. On September 14, 2023, Minister Setiadi issued Communication and Informatics Minister's Instruction Number 1 of 2023 on the eradication of online gambling.

"The Ministry of Communication and Informatics has carried out preventive and proactive efforts to eradicate various (types of) online gambling or slot gambling content in all platforms within seven days from September 14, 2023," he remarked.

He explained that in accordance with the ministerial instruction, the ministry's Director General of Informatics Application, Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, is tasked with identifying the bank account numbers and phone numbers used by people indulging in online gambling.

Moreover, the director general is tasked with carrying out anti-online-gambling education and dissemination of information.

In addition, Pangerapan is tasked with instructing electronic system providers (PSEs) to not facilitate the spread of online gambling content and to be committed to abstaining from activities that support, promote, or communicate with parties that are suspected of being involved with online gambling.

The minister further said that his ministry is also improving the capabilities of machines and human resources for handling negative content to boost the coverage of content verification and handling.

Especially for handling online gambling content, the ministry is carrying out crawling of Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) and bank accounts related to negative content and intensifying applications for blocking bank accounts through the Financial Services Authority (OJK).

The ministry is also establishing more intensive cooperation with digital platforms to moderate negative content, he remarked.

"Furthermore, (the ministry is) increasing supervision of Internet Service Providers and (establishing) cooperation with attorney offices to carry out monitoring against content and issues in digital space," he remarked. (Antaranews)