Indonesia to ban 477 websites over adult-rated content

Indonesia will block 477 websites, including social network and microblog Tumblr, over alleged "pornographic contents", a top official said on Wednesday.

"I have signed off the letter and sent it to the internet service provider. These websites should be blocked in the next two or three days," Xinhua quoted Azhar Hasyim, e-business director at the Communication and Information Ministry in Jakarta, as saying.

He said that these websites have violated the country's information and electronic law which prohibits sharing posts that contain vulgarity.

Azhar said that his office had not warned the owners of the websites in advance but would communicate later on.

"Once they have agreed to clean up their websites from pornographic content, then we will immediately reopen the access," said Azhar.

The Indonesian government has in the past banned access to websites with adult-rated and pro-terrorism content.