Steam, PayPal, and Yahoo unbanned in Indonesia while Epic Games and Origin are yet to comply

The Indonesian ban debacle continues (Images via Steam and Epic Games)
The Indonesian ban debacle continues (Images via Steam and Epic Games)

Steam, Yahoo, and PayPal have been unbanned in Indonesia and are now accessible. According to reports, Valve has registered with the concerned government agency, and it is likely that the other two followed suit. The recent developments will bring much relief to the huge number of people affected by the ban.

News of the ban on Steam, Epic Games, PayPal, Origins and more had become a major concern for players across Indonesia last week. The country's government implemented a blanket ban on the services of these companies after they failed to comply with government regulations.

While Steam, Yahoo, and PayPal are now back in Indonesia, Epic Games and Origins remain in the lurch.


The future of Epic Games and Origin remains unknown in Indonesia

Daniel Ahmad, a well-known industry insider, earlier shared the news of Steam getting unbanned on his official Twitter channel. He stated that Valve has registered with Kominfo, the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of the Republic of Indonesia. This has resulted in Steam services being unbanned in the country.

Kominfo's official Twitter handle also put out a tweet with a government statement detailing the three companies that were being unbanned. The post stated as follows [translated by Google]:

  • PayPal has been open for access since Sunday, July 31, 2022 at 08.00 WIB.
  • Valve Corp (Steam, CS: GO, and DOTA) has been normalizing since 08.30 WIB today, Tuesday, August 2, 2022.
  • Yahoo! normalization has been carried out since 08.30 WIB today, Tuesday, August 2, 2022.

The future of Epic Games and EA's Origin is still undecided. Daniel Ahmad noted that neither companies have confirmed whether they plan to comply with the government's rule and register with Kominfo.


The rule and the subsequent ban

Three days ago, Indonesians found that their access to these popular internet services was barred. Panic and confusion set in with no official announcement as to why the services had been disrupted or when they would be back.

People suspected it had something to do with an official ruling of the country's government regarding Private Electronic System Providers (PSE) doing business within Indonesia and providing tech services. The rule asks such companies to register themselves with Kominfo, or face formal warnings, a monetary fine and access termination.

The Indonesian Game Association put out a response soon after, stating:

"6 of the 10 most popular SE's who haven't registered are from the video game field. These SE-SE include Steam, Dota 2, CS:GO (Valve Corporation), Epic Games (Epic Games, Inc), and Origin (Electronic Arts). Therefore, KOMINFO has cut off access to these SE by KOMINFO since July 29, 2022 at 23.59."

It continued:

"The termination of access is not permanent, and will be able to be reused by the Indonesian people as before after the affected SE has been registered. Currently, KOMINFO is actively communicating with the affected PSEs and will be followed up after the PSE registers."

Players were understandably upset with their government's decision to cut off access to these popular websites and internet services. Other than gamers, many more who conduct business transactions on the platform were affected by the ban on PayPal. The ruling has also been called into question by a number of people who did not agree with the abrupt ban.

Whatever the case may be, they can finally breathe a sigh of relief with the three popular companies now unbanned across the country. Only time will tell when Epic Games and Origin will finally return. One surely hopes that the banned PSEs are working behind the scenes to come to a quick resolution.