Over The Past Four Years, There Have Been 566,332 Online Gambling Content That Has Been Cut Off

Gambling illustration (Photo by Alois Komenda on Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Kominfo has cut off access to 566,332 content in the digital space that has elements of gambling. That figure includes accounts of digital platforms and sites that share content related to gambling activities.

Kominfo said this effort had been carried out from 2018 to August 22, 2022.

"The access termination was carried out based on the findings of cyber patrols, reports from the public, and reports from government agencies on the discovery of content that has an element of gambling," said Director General of Informatics Applications, Semuel A. Pangerapan, Monday, August 22, quoted from Antara.

In detail, in 2018 access to online gambling content was cut off as many as 84,484 content. Then in 2019 there were 78,306 content; in 2020 as many as 80,305 content; in 2021 as many as 204,917 content; and in 2022 as of August 22, there are 118,320 content.

The cyber patrol carried out by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics is supported by a negative internet site monitoring system or AIS, which is operated 24 hours non-stop by a team of the Directorate of Information Application Control.

In addition, Kominfo said that the termination of access was not the only solution for completing online gambling.

Kominfo also encourages the improvement of people's digital literacy through the National Digital Literacy Movement program to fortify the public from various negative content in the digital space, including online gambling.

"This activity is carried out with relevant stakeholders from the civil society community, industry players, media, academics, government agencies, and other related institutions," said Semuel.

The Ministry of Communication and Informatics also supports law enforcement efforts against online gamblers and is ready to cooperate in efforts to eradicate various kinds of negative content on the internet carried out by the police.

Especially for online gambling activities, Article 27 paragraph 2 jo. Article 45 paragraph 2 of the ITE Law threatens those who intentionally distribute or make online gambling accessible, with a maximum imprisonment of 6 years and/or a maximum fine of Rp. 1 billion.

Article 303 bis of the Criminal Code also threatens gambling players with a maximum imprisonment of 4 years and/or a maximum criminal fine of Rp. 10 million.

The Ministry of Communication and Informatics mentioned several challenges faced in efforts to handle online gambling, including gambling sites being reproduced with similar domain names or using IP addresses.

Furthermore, gambling offers via personal messages cannot be monitored by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics.

Then, law enforcement related to gambling activities is regulated differently in each country, so this raises the issue of legal action for online gambling organizers outside Indonesia.

"This challenge emphasizes that efforts to eradicate online gambling need to be carried out by all elements, including the government, society, and industry players," said Semuel.

To support this joint effort, the Ministry of Communication and Information has opened a public complaint channel via the https://aduankonten.id/ link to report findings with negative content on digital platforms.

There is also a complaint number through a complaint about abuse of telecommunications services to the Twitter account @aduanPPI belonging to the Ministry of Communications and Informatics if you receive a message related to online gambling sent via SMS.