Indonesia Halts Worldcoin Over Legal Breaches and Privacy Fears

Suspicious Entity Registrations Trigger Government Crackdown Amid Global Scrutiny

Indonesia has temporarily suspended the operations of Worldcoin, now rebranded as World, citing multiple legal violations, suspicious activity, and privacy concerns tied to its biometric identity program. The move was announced on May 4, 2025, by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Komdigi), which flagged World’s failure to meet critical legal and registration requirements under the nation’s Electronic System Operator regulations. 

Authorities identified that the project had been operating without proper certification through PT Terang Bulan Abadi and had registered services under a different company, PT Sandina Abadi Nusantara—despite the latter not being the actual service provider. Komdigi deemed this a “serious violation” and labeled the suspension a preventive measure to mitigate risks to the public.

World, co-founded in 2019 by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, seeks to verify human identity through iris biometric scans to issue a unique “World ID” that users can employ as a digital passport in a crypto-driven economy. Globally, World has deployed over 850 Orb scanning devices, with plans to scale up to 10,000 through a new manufacturing facility underway in Texas. 

While the company has emphasized transparency and collaboration with regulators, the Indonesian suspension exposes cracks in its international expansion strategy. Despite its assurances, World’s registration efforts in the country appear to have lacked full compliance, leading the government to summon both implicated local entities for investigation.

A spokesperson for Tools for Humanity, the organization behind World, confirmed that services in Indonesia have been voluntarily paused while the team works with authorities to resolve the registration dispute. “If there are any shortcomings or misunderstandings with our permits, we will certainly address them,” the spokesperson stated. The company also pointed to prior engagement with local officials, citing efforts to educate the public and initiate regulatory discussions before launch. However, these explanations have not shielded the project from backlash online, where user sentiment ranges from praise for Indonesia’s intervention to concern over the ethical tradeoffs in offering money for biometric data in economically vulnerable regions.

This isn’t the first time Worldcoin has faced resistance. Governments in Kenya, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Spain, and Hong Kong have all moved to block or suspend the project, voicing apprehensions over how iris data—no matter how encrypted or anonymized—is handled. Critics continue to question whether biometric data can ever be truly secure when managed by a private tech entity. Many privacy advocates also highlight the potential for exploitation, especially when individuals in low-income areas are incentivized to trade sensitive personal data for modest payments.

Altman has framed Worldcoin as a safeguard in a future dominated by AI, where proving human identity becomes critical. With the Trump administration pushing a pro-crypto agenda, the project launched in six U.S. cities in early May, making the United States a central focus of its growth roadmap. The upcoming Texas factory underscores World’s ambition to scale rapidly, but the controversy in Indonesia illustrates the uphill battle it faces in aligning global expansion with local compliance and public trust.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.