Indonesia blocks Musk's 'X' domain over gambling, porn history

San Francisco, July 27

Elon Musk's rebranding of Twitter as 'X' has resulted in the microblogging platform being temporarily blocked in Indonesia, owing to the country's strict laws prohibiting online pornography and gambling.

According to Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Informatics, the domain had previously been used by sites that did not adhere to the country's strict laws against "negative" content such as pornography and gambling, reports Al Jazeera.

Director General of Information and Public Communication at the ministry, Usman Kansong, stated that the government has been in touch with X to gain clarity on the nature of the website.

"Earlier today, we spoke with representatives from Twitter and they will send a letter to us to say that X.com will be used by Twitter," Kansong was quoted as saying.

Due to the recent move, Indonesians are currently unable to access the platform, which is said to have approximately 24 million users in a population of 270 million people, the report said.

In 2022, Indonesian authorities threatened to block websites such as Netflix, Google, Instagram, and Facebook if they did not remove "content deemed unlawful, or that disturbs public order". Netflix and TikTok were previously banned in the country, in 2016 and 2018, for "inappropriate content".

Musk announced the sudden switch as part of a larger plan to transform Twitter into a "super app" similar to China's WeChat. In theory, X can be used for payments, messaging, and other non-social tasks. Meanwhile, Musk has had a long history with the letter and brand "X". The most well-known example is SpaceX, another company in which he serves as CEO. Then there's xAI, Musk's AI-focused venture, and X Corp, his corporate shell firm. He even named his son "X Æ A-Xii". Musk bought back the X.com domain in 2017 after being the original owner since 1999.