The ambitious ‘X’ rebranding attempt by Twitter came into unanticipated difficulties in Indonesia. The website has reportedly been momentarily disabled as a result of its links to websites that have previously published “negative” material.
In a recent announcement, Elon Musk revealed that the domain X.com, previously associated with payment platform PayPal, has now replaced Twitter, marking a notable development in the social media landscape.
As a result, numerous millions of Indonesian people couldn’t use the network due to restrictions put in place by the government to stop online gambling and pornography.
A screenshot by a concerned Twitter user @Eno_Bening depicted a message confirming the website’s blockage, with the Ministry of Communication and Informatics of Indonesia cited as the entity responsible for enforcing the restrictions.
The Ministry made it clear that there was a history of the X.com domain hosting websites that did not adhere to national rules regarding “criminal, insulting or dangerous to harmony of society” material.
The co-founder of a fact-checking group MAFINDO, Aribowo Sasmito, shared his perspective, suggesting that the blockage might have occurred due to the domain name resembling “XXX,” a common abbreviation for pornographic sites.
Elon Musk founded X.com in 1999 and first used it as an online bank before combining it with Peter Thiel’s Confinity to become PayPal. Up before Musk bought it back in 2017, eBay’s “x.commerce, an eBay Inc. company” had been using the domain. This audacious move marked a pivotal moment in the domain’s history, as Musk embarked on an entirely new venture that would soon reverberate worldwide.
Usman Kansong, the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics’ director-general of information and public communication responded to the predicament by revealing that they have been in contact with Elon Musk’s business to comprehend and fix the problem.
Kansong revealed that representatives from Twitter have engaged in discussions, intending to clarify that X.com will now be used exclusively by Twitter.
Indonesia, with its massive population and growing digital user base, presents an alluring market for global tech giants like Twitter. However, the recent ban highlights the complexities and sensitivities surrounding content regulations in the country. As the situation unfolds, the incident serves as a crucial challenge for Twitter’s aspirations to rebrand and establish a strong presence in the Indonesian market, raising questions about the future accessibility of the platform in the country.
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