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STORY: Indonesia has banned e-commerce

transactions on social media platforms

just three months after TikTok pledged to invest

billions of dollars in Southeast Asia, mainly Indonesia

TikTok has 125 million active monthly users in the country

and has been looking to translate that user base

into a major e-commerce revenue source

The government said the aim was to protect

small businesses and offline merchants

But vendors who rely on the platform for sales

are concerned the move will hurt their income

Fahmi Ridho is a TikTok merchant

"Many MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) may not be able to have physical stores, their physical stores are limited and so far they have relied a lot on TikTok. In the end, the policy passed will disrupt their sales, in my opinion. And we cannot deny that after COVID, one way of economic recovery is TikTok."

Indonesia's trade minister says TikTok

has one week to comply with the regulation