The number arrives with the bluntness of a government tally. TikTok and YouTube have deactivated roughly 4.7 million accounts belonging to children under 16 in Indonesia, the country’s communications minister said on 25 June.
The bulk of the cuts came from one platform: TikTok deactivated 4.1 million accounts, while YouTube removed 600,000, according to Communications and Digital Minister Meutya Hafid.
The deactivations follow a rule the government issued in March, which requires social media companies operating platforms deemed high risk to remove accounts held by children under 16.
The regulation does not apply only to the two platforms named in the latest figures.
It also covers X, Meta’s Instagram, and the gaming platform Roblox, which suggests the published total is a first instalment rather than a final count.
