Elon Musk’s rebrand of Twitter to X.com gets blocked in Indonesia due to pornography laws

Elon Musk rebrand of Twitter to‘X’ has been blocked in Indonesia due to the country's porn laws.

As the social media giant now known as X is using a new domain, X.com, it has proved to be a huge problem for the Southeast Asian country.

Al Jazeera reported that the site has been temporarily blocked as the domain has been previously linked with porn and gambling sites.

Now, millions of Indonesians can’t access the page as the country's Ministry of Communication and Informatics said the site’s domain didn’t adhere to the country’s strict laws regarding ‘negative’ content.

A screenshot shared on Twitter shows one user denied access for violating regulations.

According to the outlet, Usman Kansong, the director general of information and public communication at the ministry, said the agency had been in contact with Twitter to rectify this issue.

“Earlier today, we spoke with representatives from Twitter and they will send a letter to us to say that X.com will be used by Twitter,” Kansong told local media earlier this week.

In 2008, Indonesia passed the country’s strict anti-porn regulations, which outlaws pornographic acts and images.

The law defines pornography as ‘man-made sexual materials in the form of drawings, sketches, illustrations, photographs, text, voice, sound, moving pictures, animation, cartoons, poetry, conversations, and gestures'.

Additionally, the law states that even possessing or downloading porn can land you in jail for four years, while a sexually suggestive performance can end up as a 12-year sentence.

Aribowo Sasmito, the co-founder of the fact-checking group MAFINDO, said there were pornographic associations with the letter ‘X’, which is why Twitter has landed in hot water.

“The name is not too far from XXX, I guess,” he told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, we know that Musk has a strong affinity for the letter as he's used it for Tesla X, SpaceX and even named one of his children X Æ A-Xii.

So, it’s not likely he’ll change it anytime soon.

“Not sure what subtle clues gave it away, but I like the letter X,” the tech billionaire wrote shortly after he unveiled the new logo.

Linda Yaccarino, CEO of the social media app, called the rebranding an 'exceptionally rare thing' and 'a second chance to make another big impression'.

“Twitter made one massive impression and changed the way we communicate. Now, X will go further, transforming the global town square,” she shared in a tweet.