TMCnet Feature

Indonesians are avid tweeters, but the Indonesian minister has declared that tweet will now be censored for deviant content. Pornography, gambling, threats, fraud and blasphemy — all of these are crimes in Indonesia, and the Minister of Communications and Information, Tifatul Sembiering, has warned citizens that they will be prosecuted for these crimes and all efforts to hide behind anonymous Twitter (News - Alert) accounts are in vain.

“If they violate the laws, they will be punished. Principally, every account user could be held responsible by tracing his position and device.”

Minister Sembiring is known for his lack of tolerance for immoral behavior. According to BBC reports, Sembiring warned Indonesia that the earthquakes and tsunamis that have plagued the nation for over the past decade and caused thousands of deaths was the nation’s fault. If the citizens were conducting themselves appropriately, God would not have had to take such drastic efforts.

When the natural disasters ceased and a porn epidemic infiltrated the nation’s BlackBerry (News - Alert) devices, Sembiring gave BlackBerry maker RIM two weeks top to get rid of the problem. When RIM complained that censoring smartphones wasn’t an easy task, Sembiring’s patience ran out. “We’re not negotiating, if RIM does not comply with the rules and laws of Indonesia, enough is enough!”

However, Sembiring is not completely opposed to using social media. He has a Twitter account. But what kind of tweets does he send to his followers? Perhaps the diametric opposite of porn if ever there was one. Anti-porn, if you will. An avidly conservative Muslim, Sembiring does not believe in touching women, so he claimed that when he shook the First Lady’s hand, it was an innocent mistake:

"I tried to prevent (being touched) with my hands but Mrs. Michelle held her hands too far toward me (so) we touched,"