After promising a strong response to piracy for several years, Indonesia has finally taken action against The Pirate Bay. Along with fellow torrent index IsoHunt.to, the site is among almost two dozen others now ordered by the Ministry of Communications to be blocked at the ISP level.

After being accused of doing little to stop piracy both on and offline, in 2009 Indonesia was placed on the USTR’s Priority Watch List for failing to protect US intellectual property rights.

In 2011 the Indonesian government announced that it would begin to take tough measures, including having local ISPs block the most-visited sites.

“The plan is to block famous sites, like 4shared for example,” Communication Minister Tifatul Sembiring said at the time.

Four years later (and after blocking sites including Reddit, Imgur and Vimeo on decency grounds) Indonesia is finally taking action against sites that infringe copyrights.

Following the signing last month of a Joint Ministerial Decree intended to protect film producers, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has ordered almost two dozen domains to be blocked at the ISP level.

While there is a nod to U.S. concerns with a blockade of both ThePirateBay.se and Isohunt.to, the remainder (list below) are sites frequented mainly by locals. 4shared is not among them.

Certainly, the tone of the government’s announcement during a press conference this week indicated that local producer interests are behind the blocking order. Famous (and outstanding) martial arts movies The Raid and The Raid 2 were mentioned specifically.

“What is offered in the virtual world is not according to the law. In order to protect the intellectual property rights of our art we must block these sites,” said Rudiantara, Minister of Communications and Information Technology.

“The government wants to protect the work of artists in Indonesia. The damage suffered by the creators of content in Indonesia has been great.”

According to Director General of Intellectual Property, Ahmad M. Ramli, future complaints will be sent to him and will be actioned within 24 hours. Protection of movies will be the priority.

“The most at risk of piracy and violations of intellectual property rights on the internet are movies. If songs are heard [people will listen to them again], but if a downloaded movie is viewed, then people won’t watch them anymore,” Ramli said.

Minister of Human Rights and Justice, Yasonna Laoly, said that action needed to be taken but due to the elusive nature of site owners, blocking was the only solution.

“It’s really not good for industrial development and innovation in the film industry, music industry, and with respect to copyright. This is our creative economy,” the minister said.

“We are taking care of the websites because finding the people behind the websites is complicated. We do not know where to find them.”

Some of the domains on the blocklist are now down internationally too, although the reasons for that remain unclear.

In the meantime (and alongside Algeria, Argentina, Chile, China, Ecuador, India, Kuwait, Pakistan, Russia, Thailand, Ukraine, and Venezuela), Indonesia remains on the USTR’s Priority Watch List 2015.

The full list of blocked domains is: Ganool.com, Nontonmovie.com, Bioskops.com, Ganool.ca, Kilasan.to, Thepiratebay.se, Downloadfilmbaru.com, Ganool.co.id, 21filmcinema.com, Gudangfilm.caa.im, Movie76.com, Isohunt.to, Cinemaindo.net, Bioskop24.net, Ganool.in, Unduhfilm21.net, Bioskopkita.com, Downloadfilem.com, Comotin.net, Movie2k.ti, Unduhmovie.com and 21sinema.com.