The Indonesian authorities have banned people in the country from accessing the search engine DuckDuckGo due to concerns over gambling and pornography. [Image: Shutterstock.com]

Indonesian authorities have banned people in the country from using the search engine DuckDuckGo because of concerns over the accessibility of gambling and pornography. The communications ministry announced the restriction on Friday, stating that both activities are illegal. Indonesia has more Muslims than any other country in the world and has strict rules regarding obscene content.

Vimeo and Reddit are also on the ban list

It’s not the first popular online platform to come under scrutiny; Vimeo and Reddit are also on the ban list. Other search engines like Google are still available, though the authorities are not providing any insight into how DuckDuckGo differs from them.

This is the latest move in combating online gambling in Indonesia, with the authorities banning a long list of sports betting and casino websites and arresting influencers for promoting illegal platforms. Despite the hard stance, government figures estimated that about three million people in the nation gambled online last year, spending large sums of money while doing so.