Indonesia has made such sites illegal in the country because it has the world's largest Muslim population, and enforces strict rules against sharing obscene content online. Platforms like Reddit and Vimeo are already blocked.

As you might expect it is not very successful. Government data showed 3 million Indonesians gambled online last year, spending an estimated $20 billion, or about 1.5 per cent of the country's GDP.

Usman Kansong, a communications ministry official said DuckDuckGo was banned due to numerous complaints about rampant online gambling and pornography in its search results.

DuckDuckGo, based in Pennsylvania, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The ministry did not explain how

DuckDuckGo differs from other search engines like Google, but DuckDuckGo claims to offer products that protect online privacy, earning praise from privacy advocates.