JAKARTA, July 3 — Indonesia has stepped up enforcement of mandatory biometric face recognition for all new mobile SIM card registrations and said it will ensure all mobile operators comply with the requirement, which took effect on Wednesday (July 1).
Digital Ecosystem Director-General Edwin Abdullah said the ministry had found some operators were still activating new subscribers without biometric verification, prompting the government to order immediate compliance and warn that administrative sanctions would be imposed on violators.
“Since July 1, biometric verification has been mandatory for all new subscriber registrations. Therefore, we ask all operators to comply with this provision and immediately stop all activations that still use identity validation without biometric verification,” he said in a statement today.
Edwin added that biometric registration was not merely an administrative requirement but a strategic measure to strengthen user security and help prevent identity misuse, digital fraud, and other forms of cybercrime.
The ministry had also requested the Directorate-General of Population and Civil Registration to disable access to the national identity validation system previously used for SIM registrations, ensuring biometric verification becomes the sole registration method.
He said they will continue to monitor compliance nationwide and impose administrative sanctions on operators found to have activated new subscribers without biometric verification.
