Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Menkominfo) reopened its citizens' access to Tumblr.
The microblogging website was blocked by the government on March 5, 2018, because it contained pornographic contents, and was failing to comply with the country's strict anti-pornography rules.
The news began a week before, when the Ministry was considering to unblock Tumblr. Minister Rudiantara initially promised to reopen the access to Tumblr once the website’s administrators adhere to the government’s policies.
And since the Ministry sees that Tumblr has rid its platform from pornographic contents, it should be reconsidered.
"Tumblr sent an official statement regarding the commitment to clean the platform from pornographic content,” Acting Head of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics Bureau Ferdinandus Setu said in a press release, announcing that the "normalization" was commenced on Monday, December 24.
"This was done after Tumblr sent us an official letter voicing their commitment to completely crack down pornographic contents within its platform," said Ferdinandus in a statement.
Tumblr was a safe haven for adult contents, despite never being a site for pornography. Users of the site were using the platform for sharing explicit photos, videos, as well as GIF images.
Indonesia has a tough anti-pornography laws. In March, the Minister said that it received complaints about pornographic contents on more than 360 Tumblr's accounts. The Ministry first sent a warning letter to Tumblr about this issue on February 2018.
Because Tumblr gave no response at the time, the Ministry was forced to block Tumblr and its eight domain names.
In addition to being banned from Indonesia, Tumblr also had been banned on Apple for the same reason, as it was removed from its app from the App Store in November. The company responded to Apple and quickly removed adult-related contents from its platform starting December 17th.
Tumblr stated that it is committed to helping build a safe online environment for all users, and has no tolerance policy when it comes to media featuring child sexual exploitation and abuse.
And with that, it started adopting a more strict approach to adult content - including photos, videos, GIFs and illustrations - deciding to apply a ban to pornography with no exceptions.
"Examples of exceptions that are still permitted are exposed female-presenting nipples in connection with breastfeeding, birth or after-birth moments, and health-related situations, such as post-mastectomy or gender confirmation surgery. Written content such as erotica, nudity related to political or newsworthy speech, and nudity found in art, such as sculptures and illustrations, are also stuff that can be freely posted," Tumblr said.
Indonesia is the world’s fourth largest country by population, and also a nation with the most Muslim population.
Pornography issue is also the reason why video-sharing site Vimeo and forum Reddit are banned in Indonesia.
At the moment of the news, Tumblr has about 447 million personal blogs from users around the world.
