The Indonesian government has blocked 800,000 websites as of December last year, mostly websites containing pornographic material or gambling sites, an official said on Saturday.

“Some 90 percent of them contained pornographic material or gambling applications, and some were simply spreading hoaxes,” Samuel Abrijani Pangerapan, the director general of Information Application at the Communications and Information Ministry, said in a discussion on Saturday as quoted by tempo.co.

Samuel said the public could access more details through http://trustpositif.kominfo.go.id.

He said the government had produced a regulation as the legal basis to block the sites. He said the ministry had established a team to check up on reports about websites from the public.

He denied that the government had implemented strict measures to monitor the cyber world.

The ministry has blocked 766,633 sites related to pornography and 85 related to radicalism.

Samuel said the owners of blocked sites could ask the ministry to lift the block after accepting some requirements.

Last month, the ministry received criticism from democracy activists regarding its decision to block suarapapua.com, a news site based in Papua. The Press Legal Aid Institute (LBH Pers) said the block constituted a violation of freedom of expression. (evi)