Indonesia, Porn & Blackberry

BlackBerry in a jam

The love affair with BlackBerry hits a sticking point
by Hedirman Supian
05:55 AM Jan 21, 2011


EARLIER this week, I chanced upon a BlackBerry advertisement on YouTube featuring Indonesian families, students, creative types and businessmen fawning over the device's instant messaging service.

It illustrates how Indonesians view the device as a status symbol and how integral it is in their day-to-day communication.

And the advertisement isn't far from reality. According to technology research firm IDC, Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry devices, captured 30 per cent of Indonesia's smartphone shipment share in the first nine months of 2010. Its market share there is now second only to Nokia.

Yet, despite its rapidly-growing popularity in the country, RIM is facing a major stumbling block. Today marks the deadline for RIM to comply with the Indonesian government's demands for it to filter out pornography on its devices.

As a mobile handset manufacturer, RIM is in a technically unique situation due to how its devices access the Internet. For BlackBerry users, email and Internet data traffic is encrypted and routed through RIM's servers.

But it's not the first time RIM has found itself in such a thorny situation because of how its devices access data. Countries such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and India have raised similar concerns and have threatened to shut its services down in their respective countries.

In each instance, RIM has shown itself repeatedly to be willing to work with the authorities. In October, RIM squeaked through an agreement with the UAE which allowed it to continue operating in the country, though no details were publicly given on the details of what the agreement between the two entities entailed.

Just last week, RIM acceded to India's requests - the company said it had implemented a solution that would allow the Indian government to lawfully access all messages sent over its secure BlackBerry Messenger and email in the country, to be implemented by Jan 31.

"This lawful access capability now available to RIM's carrier partners meets the standard required by the government of India for all consumer messaging services offered in the Indian marketplace," the company said in a statement.

So why the uncompromising stand from Indonesia?

According to the Jakarta Post, Communications Minister Tifatul Sembiring, commenting on Indonesia's stance regarding the pressure being exerted on RIM, had tweeted: "This is for bigger interests - getting a slice of the pie. RIM doesn't pay any tax to Indonesia, it doesn't build any network infrastructure."

According to Reuters, the Minister had also tweeted that Indonesia's 3 million Blackberry users meant 2.27 trillion rupiah ($320 million) a year in revenue for RIM - but nothing for the country.

But AFP last week reported that the Canadian maker of the popular BlackBerry smartphone had hit back at Indonesian officials' claims it did not pay taxes or contribute to Indonesia's booming economy, with its South-east Asia managing director Gregory Wade saying that "RIM dutifully pays all applicable taxes" and generated "significant profits" for its local partners in the archipelago.

There's also the possibility that all content that goes onto a BlackBerry handset in Indonesia has to pass through a local service provider, too - another possible point at which content could be filtered. Yet the telcos have not been issued the threat of having the plug pulled on them over the matter.

In a statement to Today, RIM said it is "in the process of implementing an Internet content filtering solution". It added that the technical solution "is designed to utilise the same standard filter lists provided by the government to the industry in Indonesia".

If the issue was just about fears of pornography flooding the country, the Indonesian authorities should start in their own backyard - especially given that many of the telcos are at least partially owned by the government.

Whatever the reason, RIM has found itself arm-twisted into compliance - as it was in the Middle East and India - and it looks like a wave that is just starting to pick up momentum.