Online Loan Is Getting More And More Disturbing, Kominfo Collaborates With Google To Remove Illegal Online Loan Applications

Minister of Communication and Informatics cooperates with Google to eradicate illegal lending (ANTARA)

JAKARTA – Illegal online loans (pinjol) are increasingly mushrooming. Not a few are forced to transact at illegal lending companies because they are pressed for debt even though they are subject to high interest on loans.

Not only that, borrowers often get threats from debt collectors, family or friends will be contacted if they are stuck in paying credit.

This disturbing act prompted the Minister of Communication and Information to cut off access to illegal loan services from application stores, both on the Play Store and the App Store. The action was based on a request from the Financial Services Authority (OJK), which is the financial services supervisory body.

"Access is terminated directly, or through the Play Store and App Store application stores," said the Minister of Communication and Information, Johnny G Plate in a statement in a Joint Statement on the Eradication of Illegal Online Loans on Friday, August 20, 2021.

The Ministry of Communication and Information, Dedy Permadi, claims that the government always coordinates with digital platforms such as Google, which is the owner of the Play Store application store. The coordination is aimed at breaking down various negative content which includes online loan applications.

"The Ministry of Communication and Informatics always coordinates with related digital platforms in the implementation of terminating access to negative content, including online loan applications without permission found on the Play Store and App Store," said Dedy.

"The access termination is based on a request from the OJK," added Dedy.

On the other hand, Google Indonesia stated that they rely on the government to remove applications that are considered unlawful. But before that Google will first review the application in its application store.

"We rely on the government to notify us of content they believe to be illegal through an official process, and will limit it accordingly after a thorough review," said a Google Indonesia representative.

In addition, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics also continues to make efforts to eradicate illegal loans that often take advantage of advertisements, spam, SMS, and so on. Therefore, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics coordinates with cellular operators to deactivate numbers that are misused for actions that are considered unlawful as stipulated in the Minister of Communication and Information Technology Regulation Number 5 of 2021 concerning Telecommunications Operations.

So far, the Investment Alert Task Force (SWI) has reportedly blocked 3,193 illegal online loan applications. The reason is that the three thousand lending platforms are not registered with the OJK. While the official online loan services under the auspices of the OJK amount to 121 lending platforms. For users who want to make sure that the loan is officially under the supervision of OJK or not, you can click this link or you can also contact the OJK directly via number 081-157-157-157.