Indonesia lifts TikTok licence suspension as app shares data

Indonesia has lifted its suspension of TikTok's local operating licence after the social media platform shared data requested by the government about recent protests, the ministry of communication and digital affairs said.

Indonesia has the second biggest audience on TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, with more than 100 million users.

The ministry said Friday it had "temporarily suspended" the app's operating licence for failing to provide adequate data on its live feature's activities during anti-government protests in August.

But TikTok supplied the requested data that same day, the ministry's director general Alexander Sabar said in a statement late Saturday.

"Based on the fulfillment of those obligations, the communication and digital affairs ministry… reactivated TikTok's status as a registered electronic system operator," he said.

A spokesperson for TikTok declined to comment, but the video-sharing app has previously said it respects the laws of the markets it operates in.

The company has faced a series of challenges operating in Indonesia

It briefly suspended its live feature in August during violent protests that erupted after the death of a man hit by a police vehicle.

On Monday, Indonesia's antitrust agency fined TikTok $900,000 for failing to notify regulators in time about its acquisition of e-commerce platform Tokopedia.

Its e-commerce feature was also suspended by the government in 2023 after it moved to help small businesses.

It then bought a 75 percent stake in Tokopedia, Indonesia's largest e-commerce platform, bringing together their shopping arms.