A Catholic priest says the government is wasting its time if it thinks it can censor social networking sites like Twitter to stop people abusing others or committing online crime.

“Twitter is difficult to monitor because anonymous users can simply open another account in other names,” Father Antonius Benny Susetyo, who has 1,485 followers, said today.

Many users of social media use slang words, he added. “So, what kind of mechanism will [the government] use to conduct the censorship?” he asked.

He was responding to a statement issued yesterday by Tifatul Sembiring, minister of communication and information technology, who said his ministry is monitoring accounts on Twitter and other sites and will close accounts and launch prosecutions if they are found to be violating cyber laws.

According to the minister, there are five violations under the Information and Electronic Transactions Act which would warrant legal action: pornography, gambling, threats, fraud and blasphemy.

He said offenders could face seven to 12 years imprisonment.

However, Father Susetyo, who is also executive secretary of the Indonesian Bishops’ Conference’s Commission for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, acknowledged that Twitter should be used responsibly and not maliciously .

“Users must be ethical. They must not use the internet to spread hatred,” he said.