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Indonesia Doesn’t Want You Watching Porn During Ramadan

Muslims around the world start fasting today as Ramadan begins. The holiest event on the Islamic calendar will see Muslims around the world fasting and praying in accordance with their faith. It seems...
Indonesia Doesn’t Want You Watching Porn During Ramadan
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  • Muslims around the world start fasting today as Ramadan begins. The holiest event on the Islamic calendar will see Muslims around the world fasting and praying in accordance with their faith. It seems that Indonesia is taking the holy month a bit too far this year by blocking access to more than one million porn sites.

    Indonesia’s Communications And Information Industry has blocked more than one million porn sites on Wednesday ahead of the start of Ramadan. It makes sense in a way as sexual relations are prohibited during the day, but whether or not porn can be classified as sexual relations is a question I can’t answer. Regardless, Minister Tifatul Sembiring said that the country would target more Web sites as the month went on according to The Times of India.

    “We will block more porn sites during Ramadan, though that doesn’t mean that we will allow such sites to operate during the rest of the year. Online pornography is an industry and the producers always seem to find new ways of escaping detection.”

    Indonesia is not the first, nor will it be the last, nation that has come out against online porn. While Indonesia is blocking the sites for religious reasons, other countries block them for something far simpler – protecting the children from something they’re going to find anyway. The United Kingdom wants all ISPs to block porn by default with those wanting access being forced to ask permission.

    As we’ve seen with any other attempt to censor the Internet, people will just get around it anyway. The truly devout Muslims wouldn’t be viewing porn sites anyway, so who exactly does this ban target?

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