Players Asked To Destroy Kaaba-like Buildings, Fortnite Game Cut Down By Two Indonesian Ministers At Once

JAKARTA - Social media is being stirred up by the emergence of the Fortnite game which is alleged to have a mode to destroy objects in the form of the Kaaba. To that end, the Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo) Johnny G. Plate and the Minister of Tourism and Creative Economy (Menparekraf), Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno responded to this viral news.

"In response to the circulation of a video in the online game Fortnite containing an icon that is considered to be similar to the Kaaba, the Ministry of Communication and Information has reviewed the content in question. Based on the search results, the content was published on February 17, 2019 on the YouTube channel," said Johnny in an official statement, Monday, July 5.

In response, Fortnite gave a statement to the Ministry of Communication and Information, that the element that was claimed to be similar to the Kaaba was User Generated Content (UGC) which was made with the special Creativity Mode feature. Thus, Fortnite does not intentionally provide for all users to destroy the Kaaba-like object.

Therefore, Johnny will continue to search for content created on the Google platform and it is said that his party is now also cooperating with the police, "As a follow-up to the circulation of this content, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology is coordinating with the Indonesian National Police to track down and take action against the perpetrators who created the content," said Johnny.

Meanwhile, Sandiaga will immediately block the game, "Fortnite is directly against noble values, especially religious. This can trigger disrespectful behavior between religious communities and encourage violence," said Sandiaga.

Previously, the viral video game Fortnite also received a strong reprimand from the Electronic Fatwa Center of Al-Azhar University in Cairo. They prohibit, including online games that encourage violence or contain false ideas that distort faith or show contempt for religion.

In addition, Sandiaga admitted to agreeing with the fatwa issued by the Electronic Fatwa Center of Al Azhar University in Cairo, namely a prohibition for Muslims not to play the game Fortnite. This is because the game has injured Muslims and has the potential to affect the confidence and mentality of young people.

"Therefore, I instruct the team to review and immediately issue a ban. We also want to warn some game developers to be careful," asked Sandiaga.