Indonesia sends mixed messages on BlackBerry ban

Indonesia Thursday denied it was considering a ban on BlackBerry smartphone services in line with similar moves from the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, but did not rule out the option either.

Communications and Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring said the government had requested the maker of the smartphone, Research in Motion (RIM), to open a "data centre" in Indonesia but there was no push for a ban.

"That's not true. There's no such policy," he said in a message posted on microblogging website Twitter, responding to media reports.
Ministry spokesman Gatot Dewa Broto earlier told AFP: "It's not true that we're planning to ban BlackBerry services in Indonesia.

"We just recommended that they open a data centre in Indonesia so the data doesn't have to be routed through Canada," he added.
An official with the telecommunications watchdog, however, said a ban was an option for the future if RIM refused to build the data centre, a move that could jeopardise the security of the services it offers to customers.

"We need to be firm with RIM if they insist on not opening a data centre in Indonesia," the official, Heru Sutadi, told AFP.
"It's not impossible that we will ban BlackBerry services here in the future. So far, however, we haven't decided on anything."

He added: "We've been following developments in other countries and we actually have similar concerns."
A statement on the communication ministry's website said "so far" the government had "no plan to apply a similar policy to the UAE because we don't see the urgency".

The UAE and Saudi Arabia have moved to block BlackBerry services including messenger, web browsing and email, citing security concerns.
India is another country mulling restrictions due to fears BlackBerry's encrypted services, which involve data being routed through secure servers in Canada, could be used by militants or others for criminal activities.

Muslim-majority Indonesia has a problem with homegrown Islamic militancy and has been the scene of a string of terror bombings since 2000.
There are reportedly about 1.2 million BlackBerry users in Indonesia, a country of 240 million people seen as a major emerging market for information technology and mobile communications.

RIM founder and co-chief executive Mike Lazaridis told The New York Times on Wednesday that allowing governments to monitor messages on the BlackBerry networks would imperil the firm's relationships with customers, including major corporations and law enforcement agencies.
"We're not going to compromise that," Lazaridis said. "That's what's made BlackBerry the number one solution worldwide."

He said the encryption causing alarm among some governments was used for many legal purposes including e-commerce transactions, teleconferencing and electronic money transfers.
"If you were to ban strong encryption, you would shut down corporations, business, commerce, banking and the Internet," he said. "Effectively, you'd shut it all down. That's not likely going to happen."