News sites with the extension --news.com that imitate national news sites have been blocked since Wednesday.

The move was made upon a formal request by the Information and Communication Ministry to the Internet Service Providers (ISP), according to the ministry's spokesman Ismail Cawidu.

At least 10 national news sites have been reportedly copied. They are: antaranews.com, beritasatu.com, detik.com, inilah.com, kompas.com, liputan6.com, merdeka.com, republika.com, tempo.co, and tribunnews.com.

The news sites were imitated by adding --news.com to the web addresses, for example: kompas.com--news.com.

Last Tuesday, the address kompas.com--news.com displayed a few newsfeeds, although the credibility was doubted. Now, the address kompas.com--news.com is just a blank page.

Ismail said the bogus news sites had been inaccessible since Wednesday afternoon. Running bogus news sites violates Article 11 of the 2008 Electronic Information and Transaction Law.

He said blocking such news sites was done after complaints from the public and requests that the ISPs close them. The procedure is different from the blocking of porn sites, which can be done without any complaints.

IT specialist Onno Widodo Purbo revealed in the investigation through whois by Linux that --news.com originated in the United States.

'€œFrom the investigation'€™s temporary result, it shows that the owner of kompas.com--news.com is someone in California,'€ he said.

To track, by whois, the maker of --news.com bogus subdomain or to block the site is fairly easy, Onno said. The difficulty is in arresting the creator because the ministry'€™s authority is limited to domestic areas, he said, adding that the assistance of the Foreign Ministry and Interpol was necessary. (hak/hhr)

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