Indonesia bans DuckDuckGo search engine on gambling, porn concerns

Pennsylvania-based and privately owned DuckDuckGo did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside normal US business hours.

The ministry did not say how DuckDuckGo differs from other search engines such as Alphabet’s Google but on its website, DuckDuckGo said it offered several products intended to “help people protect their online privacy” including the search engine, which it said has been praised by privacy advocates.

Indonesia has vowed to crack down on online gambling in recent months and has banned access to several such websites. Though illegal, government data showed 3 million Indonesians went online to gamble last year, spending an estimated US$20 billion, or about 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product.