Important news for the global Wikimedia community: If you’ve recently tried to edit Wikipedia or any other Wikimedia project from Indonesia, you’ve likely found that logging in is impossible. You can still read wiki articles, but logging in or registering a new account? You’ll be met with this error message:
or a message like this
It was just after 2 PM on February 25th when a wiki friend contacted me because they were having trouble connecting while trying to log in to a wiki site, even on other wiki sites too. I suggested trying a different browser, restarting their device, switching to a different data network or Wi-Fi, checking whether their computer’s clock was correct (which can affect HTTPS sites), and trying non-wiki sites as well. I told them everything was working fine on my end; no issues at all. But then I tried it in a Private Window and ran into the same problem. I could still read wiki sites, but the moment I tried to log in, I got a Potential Security Issue page. Something’s not right, I thought.
I started asking around in my wiki group, and my friend did the same in theirs. More reports began coming in: other users were experiencing the same problem. Strange, why were some people affected when I wasn’t? Why could I still edit on various wiki sites? This didn’t look like a server issue on Wikipedia’s end, or even (worst-case scenario) a full Wikipedia block. Why was only a portion of users affected, and what was the pattern? Wikimedia Status showed no server problems either.
At first I was in denial, there’s no way it’s a block, I told myself, since I and several other users could still edit. Could there be a partial block affecting only some people? Only certain ISPs?
After about an hour of coordination, the answer finally emerged: the Indonesian government, through the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Kemkomdigi), has blocked the domain auth.wikimedia.org. The block is real, although it’s not a complete block of all Wikimedia sites, but the subdomain auth.wikimedia.org has indeed been blocked by the government.
The stated reason is the same as similar restrictions they have applied to other Electronic System Operators (ESOs): that Wikimedia Foundation has not fulfilled its obligation to register as a Private-Scope ESO, as required under Minister of Communication and Information Technology Regulation No. 5 of 2020.
With the situation confirmed, plans needed to be made quickly to manage the fallout. (The reason some users, including me, could still edit was simply because of cached sessions; we had already been logged in previously, so no new authentication check was needed.)
Indonesia has a large reader base for wiki sites. The Indonesian-language Wikipedia is visited more than 193 million times per month by readers in Indonesia, while the English Wikipedia is visited more than 58 million times. That’s not counting sister projects like Wiktionary, Wikisource, Wikimedia Commons, Wikidata, and others. There are more than 3,700 active wiki users from Indonesia, with thousands more who edit occasionally. All of them are affected by this block. We need to do damage control, I thought.
On February 25, 2026, at around 2:00 PM Western Indonesia Time, the Indonesian government through Kemkomdigi became the first government in the world to block wiki editor access by restricting the Wikimedia authentication domain.
I immediately posted the news to the Indonesian Wikipedia (WBI) Telegram channel that I co-manage with other WBI administrators.
The WBI admins quickly got to work spreading the word across various channels. Wiki communities were contacted, the WMF was contacted, WMID was contacted. The wiki community was understandably confused by this sudden block. The authentication has just been cut off out of nowhere. Why isn’t the site itself blocked? If that had happened, we might have understood because we knew that since November 2025 there had been threats regarding ESP registration. But why only the authentication? We couldn’t wrap our heads around it. Does Kemkomdigi have skilled hackers capable of detecting vulnerabilities in WMF’s systems to this degree? (Hint: The answer is yes.)
By evening, we were beginning to grasp the full gravity of the situation. Kemkomdigi was not bluffing or making empty threats this time. They have begun taking action against platforms (including WMF) that hasn’t registered as ESOs, and they aren’t afraid to penalize non-compliant entities. In WMF’s case, the ones being punished are the wiki volunteer editors in Indonesia.
At that point, all we could do was share information with the Indonesian wiki community about how to use a VPN to stay connected to wiki sites. We braced ourselves for a block that could last weeks, or even months.
What actually happens?
Let’s be clear from the outset (especially for journalists and those unfamiliar with technology or how Wikimedia sites work): it is not Wikipedia that was blocked, but rather access to the subdomain that handles:
- User login across 750+ wiki projects
- New account registration
- Authentication for third-party tools that use Wikimedia authentication.
Wikipedia itself remains accessible; you can read it and even edit it anonymously. But registered users are being locked out. It’s like a library that lets people read books, but prevents anyone from writing new ones (unless they do so anonymously).
The reason? Wikimedia Foundation has not fulfilled its obligation to register as a Private-Scope Electronic System Operator (ESO). This regulation, a product of the previous ministry (Kemkominfo), has been criticized as the Most Repressive Regulation by the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Under its terms, ESOs operating in Indonesia must: (1) register with Kemkomdigi, (2) grant system and data access to authorities, (3) not provide “prohibited content,” (4) comply with content removal requests, and a string of other vague rules that pose potential risks to the personal data of Indonesian wiki contributors.
But here’s the problem: the ones being punished by Kemkomdigi are the volunteer editors in Indonesia. As Ilham A. Ridlo from Universitas Airlangga / IfKW LMU Munich wrote:
"Wikipedia is not a for-profit social media company. It is a nonprofit project that depends on voluntary participation. Wikipedia does not collect user data for advertising. Wikipedia does not use algorithms to maximize engagement. Wikipedia does not host user-generated content without review.
An approach that fails to distinguish between commercial platforms and public knowledge infrastructure risks producing unintended consequences."
Why does this matter?
On March 9th, various Indonesian wiki communities issued a joint statement explaining the impact of this access restriction:
- “By restricting login access, it will be difficult for Wikimedians to update Wikipedia articles to keep them reliable.”
- “By restricting account registration, it will make it harder for new contributors who want to share knowledge.”
- “By restricting access, it will hinder native speakers in Indonesia who want to write in and preserve their mother tongue. This will cause regional languages in Indonesia to lose more speakers and even face the threat of extinction.”
Without a community of volunteer editors, who will maintain the quality of the wikis, revert vandalism, and keep articles up to date (more than 763,000 articles on WBI alone)? Who will write articles about current events: the Iran War, the Epstein Files, recent deaths of public figures? Who will upload Indonesian content, contribute, and bring an Indonesian perspective to global wiki sites like English Wikipedia, Meta-Wiki, and Wikidata? Who will continue the regional language projects still in the Incubator?
Do you remember your first edit? Perhaps another user welcomed you and helped you learn the ropes. That pathway is now closed because of this restriction. Every outreach event, wiki training session, and competition that has been planned, every language preservation effort like WikiKatha events, now hits a wall at the very first step: “Please create an account first.” New voices — students, academics, cultural preservationists — simply cannot join.
The 1.6 million registered users of Indonesian Wikipedia didn’t appear overnight. They were built up through 23 years of effort on WBI and 45 other regional-language wiki sites. With a single order from Kemkomdigi, that growth has been stunted.
But the greatest impact that will be felt in the coming months for as long as this restriction remains is on those who care about Wikimedia’s mission to “empower and engage people around the world”, because Wikimedia projects are among the very few media that care about preserving more than 700 regional languages in Indonesia. Wikimedians don’t just write Wikipedia articles. They document their languages. They digitize manuscripts, books, documents, and legal records. They compile the most comprehensive regional-language dictionaries. They collect oral histories and preserve cultural knowledge that exists nowhere else.
When a block is designed merely to make things difficult for editors, the indirect consequence is that you are accelerating the extinction of Indonesia’s languages.
WMF needs to sit down with Kemkomdigi and find a solution
Indonesian editors contribute globally. They enrich Wikidata. They upload photos, videos, books, and other files to Commons. They translate interface messages on Meta. They participate in international Wikimedia events. All of that is at risk of coming to a halt.
Statistics make it starkly clear that the number of new users joining WBI dropped dramatically at the end of February 2026. (March data will not be available until early April.) It is estimated that the 39 new users who joined at the end of February were mostly from outside Indonesia. Through March 25th, almost no new users had registered on WBI, compared to 2,577 new users in February and 2,235 in January.
This restriction also sets a dangerous precedent. What happens when other countries decide to block wiki authentication sites under similar “WMF must comply with local law” justifications? What happens when the definition of “compliance” is expanded?
The principles and pillars of wiki projects are clear. We have always held that Wikimedia sites must remain open for everyone to contribute, both anonymously and with an account. If a country can block login and registration while keeping read access intact, they have found a way to silence contributors without technically “censoring” content.
The Indonesian community put it plainly:
"Without Wikimedians, information will become increasingly difficult to update and the spread of knowledge will be impeded."
Imagine a forest where every visitor is forbidden from picking up litter or planting flowers. That is Indonesia’s situation right now.
What has the community done?
Indonesia’s Wikimedia community has not been silent in the face of this. The community’s official statement includes clear demands to Kemkomdigi:
"To lift the restriction on the registration and login features of the subdomain auth.wikimedia.org, and to refrain from any similar actions or restrictions in the future."
As of the time of writing, the petition has been signed by more than 5,000 users (~10% of whom can still log in by various means, while the rest are voicing their opposition anonymously due to the restriction). The campaign hashtag #AkuWikipedia (“I Am Wikipedia”) is also gaining traction on social media. Use it to share your story about spreading knowledge through Wikimedia sites. Don’t forget to tag @kemkomdigi and @idwiki. Talk about this in your communities. The more people discuss it, the harder it is for the government to stay silent and ignore the petition.
To conclude, as written in the statement: “The restriction on registration and login access to the subdomain auth.wikimedia.org only limits the space for Indonesian Wikimedians to freely share knowledge, and provides no benefit whatsoever to readers in Indonesia.”
This restriction protects no one. It does not make the internet safer. It will not improve compliance (at best, it only inconveniences volunteers). It simply stops well-intentioned contributors from doing what they love: sharing knowledge freely.
And that should matter to all of us.
On behalf of,
Wiki Contributors.
(This piece reflects the personal views of the author and does not represent the official views or position of the Wikimedia Foundation.)
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