“We hope this week we will unblock the application,” the Communications and Information Ministry’s director general for information applications, Samuel Abrijani Pangarepan, said.

Durov met Rudiantara at the latter’s office in Jakarta on Tuesday to discuss ways to prevent Telegram from being used by terrorists to spread their violent ideology and plot attacks.

Telegram, Durov told reporters after the meeting, had agreed to open a special communication line for the Indonesian government, which would enable Telegram and the government to act on terror-related activities on the messaging application.

Durov claimed that he had expedited the process of blocking accounts used for spreading terrorism, which

previously took around 24 to 36 hours to complete. 

Telegram can now block the accounts within hours as it had hired people with Indonesian backgrounds, Durov said. "We have some Indonesian speaking members in the team now."

Indonesia blocked the browser version of the app on July 14.

Indonesia had accused Telegram of posing a threat to its national security, as the application enables users to apply end-to-end encryption that cannot be monitored or wiretapped.

Telegram is said to be the most popular messaging application among jihadists linked to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, including several residing in Indonesia. (ary)

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