Amazon, Alibaba miss Indonesia deadline on tax, content curbs

COMPANIES including Amazon.com and Alibaba Group Holding missed a deadline to register in Indonesia, which gave them 5 working days to comply before their services would be blocked.

The companies haven't submitted official business registrations, which would effectively mean endorsing rules that grant Indonesia sweeping powers to shut down content it deems undesirable and tax digital sales. Internet giants Alphabet's Google and Meta Platforms's Facebook have complied.

"We seek to create a conducive, safe and comfortable digital space for the people, no more and no less, we want to maintain the sovereignty of our digital space," said Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan, a director-general at the ministry of communication and information technology, at a press briefing on Thursday (Jul 21).

Social media operators are facing increasing scrutiny from governments around the world as their influence grows. The rules would let Indonesia government block services that fail to remove within 24 hours content that could potentially "incite unrest" or "disturb public order," such as those that promote child pornography or support terrorism. They also let the government impose a value-added tax on the sale of digital goods, from content to virtual items.

Other companies that missed the registration deadline in Indonesia: Roblox, LinkedIn and PayPal Holdings So far, 8,276 web services companies have registered including 207 foreign ones, Pangerapan said. Those who miss the deadline and get blocked can resume operations once they comply, he added. BLOOMBERG