Jakarta (ANTARA) - Communication and Informatics Minister Budi Arie Setiadi urged the Financial Services Authority (OJK) to block bank accounts suspected of being associated with online gambling.

Setiadi put forth his official request through a letter sent to the OJK's Board of Commissioners' Chairman Mahendra Siregar.

"We have sent a letter. We ask the OJK, as an institution that supervises banking and legally, has the authority to supervise banking and block accounts," he noted at the office of the Communication and Informatics Ministry here on Wednesday.

He remarked that based on the latest findings and identification of the ministry, around 800 bank accounts are suspected of being associated with online gambling practices.

Setiadi added that apart from the ministry's identification and findings, those bank accounts were identified on the basis of reports from the community.

"The Ministry of Communication and Informatics makes various efforts for handling content through the mechanisms of cyber patrol and the community's report collection," he remarked.

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The minister explained that the request to block those bank accounts is based on Law Number 21 of 2011 on the OJK.

Blocking those bank accounts is also aimed at creating a digital space that is free from online gambling, as mandated by Article 27, Paragraph (2) of Law Number 11 of 2008, as amended by Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE).

Earlier, Setiadi stated that as of September 17, 2023, banks and platforms had blocked 1,450 bank accounts and 1,005 e-wallet accounts.

In addition, the ministry found and identified 1,931 bank accounts related to gambling.

As for the content, during the period from July 17, 2023, to September 17, 2023, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics had handled as many as 109,090 items of online gambling content and 92 items of fraud content.

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Translator: Livia Kristianti, Raka Adji
Editor: Yuni Arisandy Sinaga
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