Telkom Indonesia reportedly sets conditions for Netflix before lifting ban

Indonesia’s state-owned Telkom Indonesia is keen on unblocking Netflix after several years of preventing access to the streaming giant. According to Indonesian news outlet Kumpuran, the telco is in talks with Netflix and has sent a list of conditions prior to lifting the ban.

Quoting Telkom Indonesia president director, Ririek Adriansyah, the report said some of the conditions include compliance with regulations such as content and take down policy, as well as to include more local content producers. Agreeing with Adriansyah, Telkom's vice president of corporate communication, Arif Prabowo, said the company aims to establish a partnership with and ensure Netflix willingly complies with applicable regulations. Marketing Interactive has reached out to Telkom Indonesia for comment.

Netflix has been blocked by service providers Telkomsel, IndiHome and Wifi.id since 2016. However, Netflix has doubled down on its efforts in the country by creating a fully localised Bahasa Indonesia user interface for Indonesian users, complete with Bahasa Indonesia subtitles. In addition, the streaming platform also partnered with local operators including XL Axiata, Bolt, Hutchison 3 Indonesia and Smartfren for video data plan packages.

The selection of Indonesian content comes along with globally popular Netflix original series, anime, documentaries, stand-up comedy performances, kids content and Korean content. To better bolster its content offering for Indonesian users, Netflix also launched Indonesian original movie called The Night Comes for Us exclusively on Netflix in Indonesia and then globally on 19 October 2018.

Despite the ban, the streaming platform does not lack support from Indonesians. Early this year, Indonesian netizens fought against the hashtag #NetflixTidakAman (Netflix is not safe) that made its rounds on Twitterverse in January 2020. The hashtag emerged after customers of Telkom Indonesia were blocked from logging on to the streaming platform. Several netizens took to Twitter to voice their displeasure about the move, with some pointing out that the issue does not lie with Netflix but rather the lack of parental guidance. Some were also sarcastic in their statements, calling for those who opposed Netflix to admit that they are unable to afford the streaming service.

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