Pornographic WhatsApp GIFs removed from app after ban threat from Indonesia

'We will call all providers, including Google to clean up their network'

Picture: (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP/Getty Images)

Pornographic GIFs have been removed from WhatsApp, after Indonesia threatened to ban the messaging service.

The app lets you browse and search for a wide variety of GIFs, which are provided by third-party companies, and then send them to friends.

Some of these are explicit in nature and, on Monday, Indonesia’s communication and informatics ministry said it would block the messaging app within 48 hours if they weren't taken down.

WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook, said it wasn’t actually able to remove them itself, because communications on the app are protected by encryption.

However, the company advised the government to work directly with the GIF providers.

Tenor Inc, one of the third parties, said on Tuesday it had “already implemented a fix for the content issues”.

Users of WhatsApp Messenger on iPhones were unable to access Tenor GIFs on Tuesday.

“We see now that they have done what we asked,” said Semuel Pangerapan, a director general at Indonesia’s communication and informatics ministry. “Therefore, we won’t block them because they have responded to us.”

WhatsApp Messenger is widely used in Indonesia. Civil servants and ministers, including Minister of Communication and Information Rudiantara, are among the heaviest users.

Giphy Inc., a New York City GIFs company that also works with WhatsApp, offers partners a feature to filter inappropriate images.

Indonesia’s warning did not appear to target Gboard, a keyboard app developed by Google that provides comparable GIF search results but must be installed separately from WhatsApp on most devices.

“We will call all providers, including Google to clean up their network,” added Mr Pangerapan.

The Internet is already partly censored in Indonesia, but the latest steps mark an escalation against a background of growing conservatism in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation.

Additional reporting by Reuters