JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — BlackBerry is working to filter out pornographic content on its smartphones in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, the company said Tuesday.
Research In Motion (RIM), the Canadian-based maker of the BlackBerry, is also ready to set up a server in Indonesia, said Gatot Dewabroto, spokesman for the Ministry of Communication and Information. But RIM’s statement did not address that.
Its statement said the company was “fully committed to working with Indonesia’s carriers to put in place a prompt, compliant filtering solution for BlackBerry subscribers in Indonesia as soon as possible.”
Last week, Indonesia threatened to revoke BlackBerry’s license to operate in the nation of 237 million unless it filtered out porn and set up a local server.
A number of countries have expressed national security concerns about encrypted information on users’ BlackBerrys if RIM didn’t come up with a way for governments to monitor them. They have threatened to shut out RIM, whose competitive edge rests on ensuring security to its global users.
Indonesia says RIM earns about $251 million per year from the country’s 3 million BlackBerry users.
Dewabrata said the government would meet with RIM officials Jan. 17 to hammer out details.
