Elon Musk announced on Sunday that the X.com domain he previously used for PayPal began redirecting users to Twitter.
However, in keeping with Al Jazeera, thousands and thousands of Indonesians were subsequently unable to access the social media platform because of the country’s strict laws that aim to curb pornography and online gambling.
The screenshot shared by the Twitter user appears to indicate a page stating that the web site has been blocked by Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for violating local laws and regulations.
The ministry told Al Jazeera that the X.com domain had previously been utilized by web sites that did not comply with the country’s rules on “negative” content.
The ministry tends to dam web sites which are considered “offensive, criminal or dangerous to social harmony,” Gatria Priyandita, a cyber policy analyst on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, told Al Jazeera.
This also applies to web sites with adult content, Priyandita claims, in keeping with a news portal.
Explained: Elon Musk gives reason for changing Twitter name
Explained: Elon Musk gives reason for changing Twitter name
X.com began as a web based bank founded by Musk in 1999 before merging with Peter Thiel’s Confinity to create PayPal. The company was bought by eBay, which used the domain for “x.commerce, an eBay Inc.” in 2014 before Musk bought it back in 2017, Insider’s Pete Syme reported.
Director General of Information and Public Communications on the Indonesian Ministry of Communications and Informatics, Usman Kansong, told Al Jazeera that he had contacted Elon Musk’s company to attempt to take care of the situation.
“We spoke to Twitter representatives earlier today and they will send us a letter saying that Twitter will be using X.com,” Kansong told Al Jazeera.
X didn’t immediately reply to Insider’s request for comment.
On Monday, Insider also reported that X.com seemed to be redirecting some users, including co-founder Jack Dorsey, to a GoDaddy ad.
