JAKARTA: Alphabet Inc’s Google was among the last remaining tech platforms yet to comply with Indonesia’s new licensing rules late on Wednesday, hours from a deadline to sign up and avoid having its services blocked in the country.
Registration is required under rules released in late 2020 that would give authorities broad powers to compel platforms to disclose data of certain users and take down content deemed unlawful or that “disturbs public order” within four hours if urgent, and 24 hours if not.
With a young, tech-savvy population of 270 million, Indonesia is a top-10 market in terms of user numbers for a host of social media companies.
“We are aware of the regulation’s requirements, and are in the process of taking appropriate action toward compliance,” a Google representative said, without elaborating.
The communications ministry has said firms that do not register before midnight Wednesday will be reprimanded, fined, and then blocked — a decision that will be reversed once they sign up.
While the ministry did not say when the block would take effect, it is unlikely to be immediate.
Twitter was among the latest companies to be added to a communications ministry list of foreign providers that have signed up.
In a statement on Wednesday afternoon the company said it had “taken appropriate steps to comply.”
Meta Platforms Inc’s units Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp registered on Tuesday, while Spotify, Netflix , and ByteDance’s TikTok have also signed up, the records showed.
The government says the new rules aim to ensure Internet service providers protect consumer data, and that online content is used in a “positive and productive” way.
But it can also compel companies to reveal communications and personal data of specific users if requested by law enforcement or government agencies.
Two sources at large Internet platforms said they remain concerned about the data and content implications of the regulation and the risk of government overreach.
The Alliance of Independent Journalists in Indonesia said some provisions were open to abuse.
“The consequence could be that news or content that reveals rights violations ...or investigative reports could be considered unsettling...by certain parties, or even by the government or law enforcement,” the alliance said on Twitter.
Google yet to register for Indonesia’s new licensing rules
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Google yet to register for Indonesia’s new licensing rules
- Registration is required under rules released in late 2020 that would give authorities broad powers to compel platforms to disclose data
To infinity and beyond: Grendizer’s 50 years of inspiring Arabs
- 50 years after its creation, the Grendizer anime series continues to capture Arab imagination
- Arab News Japan speaks to creator Go Nagai, Middle Eastern fans and retells the story behind the UFO Robot tasked with protecting our planet
LONDON: Few cultural imports have crossed borders as unexpectedly, or as powerfully, as Grendizer, the Japanese giant robot that half a century ago became a childhood hero across the Arab world, nowhere more so than in Saudi Arabia.
Created in Japan in the mid-1970s by manga artist Go Nagai, Grendizer was part of the “mecha” tradition of giant robots. The genre was shaped by Japan’s experience during the Second World War, and explored themes of invasion, resistance and loss through the medium of science fiction.
But while the series enjoyed moderate success in Japan, its true legacy was established thousands of kilometers away in the Middle East.
The anime “UFO Robot Grendizer” arrived on television in the region in 1979, dubbed into Arabic and initially broadcast in Lebanon during the Lebanese civil war. The story it told of the heroic Duke Fleed, a displaced prince whose planet had been destroyed by alien invaders, struck a chord with children growing up amid regional conflict and occupation by Israel.
Its themes of defending one’s homeland, standing up to aggression and protecting the innocent were painfully relevant in the region, transforming the series from mere entertainment into a kind of emotional refuge.
Much of the show’s impact came from its successful Arabization. The powerful Arabic dubbing and emotionally charged voice-acting, especially by Lebanese actor Jihad El-Atrash as Duke Fleed, lent the show a moral gravity unmatched by other cartoons of the era.
The theme song for the series, performed by Sami Clark, became an anthem that the Lebanese singer continued to perform at concerts and festivals right up until his death in 2022.
By the early 1980s, “Grendizer” had spread across the Middle East, inspiring fandoms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq and beyond. For many, it was not only their first exposure to anime, it also delivered lessons on values such as justice and honor.
Grendizer was so influential in the region that it became the subject of scholarly research, which in addition to recognizing the ways in which the plight of the show’s characters resonated with the audience in the Middle East, also linked the show’s popularity to generational memories of displacement, particularly the Palestinian Nakba.
Half a century later, “Grendizer” remains culturally alive and relevant in the region. In Saudi Arabia, which embraced the original version of the show wholeheartedly, Manga Productions is now introducing a new generation of fans to a modernized version of the character, through a video game, The Feast of The Wolves, which is available in Arabic and eight other languages on platforms including PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo Switch, and a new Arabic-language anime series, “Grendizer U,” which was broadcast last year.
Fifty years after the debut of the show, “Grendizer” is back — although to a generation of fans of the original series, their shelves still full of merchandise and memorabilia, it never really went away.
