Indonesia Asks X to Automate the Removal of Illegal Gambling Ads

Indonesia continues its fight against the advertising of illegal gambling products, asking the social platform X to take action. This is not the first time the country has accused the platform formerly known as Twitter of promoting unlicensed gambling.

For reference, online gambling is strictly prohibited in the country, with violating operators risking up to a decade in prison, we well as a fine of up to $645,000.

Indonesia has previously issued critiques and warnings to X over its ads featuring illegal gambling products. To its dismay, the country continues to see such advertisements appear on the platform still.

As a result, the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology summoned X representatives on Tuesday to discuss the matter.  During the press conference, Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, the director general of informatics applications at the ministry, explained that his team is seeking to streamline the process of identifying and removing illegal gambling content.

While the ministry already issues notice each time it identifies such content, the continued battle tends to be tiresome, Pangerapan admitted. The director general suggested that an automated system would be able to solve this issue and asked X to do more to prevent the advertisement of illegal gambling.

Indonesia Is Trying to Keep Gambling Content at Bay

Indonesia has been concerned about the proliferation of illegal gambling ads for a while, pointing out that ads on X often involve celebrities, making them very appealing to customers. As a result, X users would be exposed to such content even if they don’t search for it or don’t follow accounts promoting online gambling.

In 2023 alone, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology cracked down on 810,785 instances of illegal online gambling content. This figure represents a concerning increase of almost 400% from 2022.

In the meantime, a survey by Populix showed that over four in five Indonesian internet users have been exposed to online gambling. A concerning 63% of those customers see online gambling ads every time they surf the web.

Indonesia has had partial success in weeding out illegal gambling content. Following Minister Budi Arie’s earlier warnings, Meta removed a lot of online gambling content and multiple illegal gambling ads.