Bad news for all privacy-conscious people living in or heading to Indonesia anytime soon. As authorities double down against online gambling and pornography – which are illegal in the country – online privacy becomes the collateral damage.
The private search engine DuckDuckGo is the first causality. On Friday, August 2, 2024, government officials confirmed to Reuters that the secure search engine had been blocked amid growing complaints of online gambling and pornography content in its search results.
Local reports also suggest that the government plans to cut off access to free VPN services as part of the national crackdown on online illegal activities.
Privacy at risk
As mentioned, DuckDuckGo is a privacy tool that millions of people worldwide use every day to browse anonymously and protect their privacy. Enforcing a ban on its usage means that people living or traveling to Indonesia are stripped of a valuable resource to protect their online privacy.
Access to the best VPN apps is also at risk – and that's a privacy nightmare waiting to happen. A virtual private network (VPN) is security software that encrypts your internet connections and spoofs your IP address location. While both functionalities boost your anonymity online, the latter also enables you to access otherwise geo-restricted content.
This means that you might not be able to use a streaming VPN to keep watching your favorite TV shows while traveling the country. Worse still, both citizens and travelers won't be able to bypass the internet restrictions currently in place.
Boasting the world's largest Muslim population, Indonesia has strict rules against the sharing of online content deemed illegal or obscene. This is why, alongside gambling and pornography websites, social media platforms like Reddit and Vimeo are also blocked.
How to bypass Indonesia internet restrictions
Considering the ban against free VPNs isn't in place at the time of writing, using a VPN remains the best way to bypass internet restrictions and keep using DuckDuckGo, Reddit, and any other services currently blocked.
After downloading your chosen app, all you need to do is connect to a server outside the country – I suggest picking one located in an area where the internet isn't hampered by restrictions. Doing so will trick your internet service provider (ISP) into thinking you're in the same place as the server and, as a result, grant you access.
Our favorite recommendation at the moment is NordVPN. If you're on a limited budget, however, I suggest looking into our best cheap VPN provider – Surfshark. It comes with super easy-to-use apps and great unblocking. Proton VPN also boasts some advanced anti-censorship technology, while offering one of the best freebies out there.
In case you're struggling to access a VPN, Tor Browser is another free-to-use circumvention tool. Likewise a virtual private network, Tor spoofs your IP, while protecting your connection inside at least three encryption layers for extra safety.
