Indonesia govt bans Tumblr over pornography

The ministry has also decided to ban 477 other online sites for porn.

Jakarta: Indonesian officials have banned the microblogging platform Tumblr over pornographic content, the media reported on Thursday.

An official in Indonesia’s Information Ministry said the site was shut down without consultation with the Yahoo-owned company, says the BBC report.

"After an exhaustive study, the ministry has decided to ban Tumblr since it contains many videos and pornographic images," said the communication ministry's e-business director, Azhar Hasyim.

The ministry has also decided to ban 477 other online sites for the same reason.

According to Azhar, blocking access to these sites will take two to three days.

The ban was announced a week after the Indonesian government demanded the removal of emoticons representing homosexuality in messaging apps, following an internet campaign against Line, another popular messaging application, for the same reason.

Tumblr, which has about 280 million blogs, was set up in 2007 by David Karp and acquired by Yahoo! in 2013 for $1.1 billion.

Unlike other social networks, Tumblr allows adult content on its site.

(With IANS inputs)