JAKARTA, The Indonesian government has ordered internet service providers (ISP’s) in Indonesia to block several websites, including YouTube and MySpace, after an anti-Islamic film sparked protests. Main internet providers in Indonesia told that they had already acted on the request from the government to block websites that feature the short film. Redaction of indahnesia.com however could still access all websites at the moment of this news message.

The move came after the communications minister last week wrote to the file-sharing site, YouTube, asking it to remove the 17-minute film, “Fitna,” made by right-wing Dutch lawmaker Geert Wilders. “We apologise, we have for the time being blocked sites and blogs which carry Fitna, at the request of the minister for communication and IT,” Internet provider Speedy said on its website. Speedy (which is a brand of state run company Telkom) said it had stopped users accessing eight different sites, including blogs that carried the film.
Radnet, another provider, tells users that it was “temporarily closing access” to YouTube and MySpace, a very popular social networking site in Indonesia, at the request of the Minister of Information. The minister wrote to Internet providers last week asking them to block access to sites that carried the film on the grounds that it could “disturb religious and civil harmony at a global level.”