Komdigi Threatens to Block Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons
The Ministry of Communication and Digital (Komdigi) has issued a final warning to the Wikimedia Foundation to promptly complete its registration as a Private Electronic System Operator (PSE) in Indonesia. The same warning applies to all subsidiaries of the Wikimedia Foundation operating in Indonesian territory.
Director General of Digital Space Supervision Alexander Sabar stated that if Wikimedia fails to register as a PSE in accordance with applicable laws within seven working days, the government will block all Wikimedia services, including the online encyclopaedia ecosystem Wikipedia Indonesia and Wikimedia Commons.
Komdigi provided this ultimatum for good reason, as it had already granted an extension at Wikimedia’s request from last year, Alex said, as quoted from the Komdigi website on Friday, 16 April 2026.
Alex explained that Komdigi sent a notification letter for PSE registration to the Wikimedia Foundation as early as 14 November 2025. Wikimedia then requested extensions three times before Komdigi implemented a limited block on the auth.wikimedia.org link at the end of February 2026.
Subsequently, on 7 April 2026, Komdigi invited Wikimedia to a meeting to discuss PSE registration. However, Wikimedia cited a lack of representatives in Indonesia. Komdigi then granted a final seven-day extension starting from 15 April 2026.
Alex said Komdigi would not hesitate to impose sanctions, given that Wikimedia had already been given ample time. “If there is still no compliance with Indonesian law, we will take firm action in the form of blocking,” he stated.
PSE registration is a mandatory requirement for digital platforms (local or foreign) operating in Indonesia to ensure legality, user data protection, and digital space governance. PSE registration is an absolute requirement for all electronic system operators, including social media, e-commerce, fintech, and search engines operating in Indonesia.
The PSE registration requirement is regulated under Ministerial Regulation of Communication and Informatics No. 5 of 2020 on Private Electronic System Operators. The regulation states that PSEs that fail to register may face sanctions ranging from written warnings to service access termination or blocking.
According to Alex, PSE registration incurs no fees and is applied equally to all platforms, whether for-profit or non-profit, including public PSEs such as the Wikimedia Foundation. “This is done to protect the public and also to protect the platform itself, in this case Wikimedia, to ensure it is legally protected,” he said.