Indonesia Minister demands Fortnite ban over alleged in-game desecration of religious site

Fortnite has been one of the most popular free-to-play games available out there. A number of different features have been added to the game and one of them allows the players to create creative maps in the game. A user recently created a Creative map in Fortnite and because of which the game could get banned in Indonesia. This is mostly after the Indonesian Minister, Sandiaga Uno announced his plans to ban the game because of a user-generated map that looks very similar to a sacred site for Muslims.

The Minister points out the map that gives the players an option to allegedly allow players to destroy a building that resembles the Kaaba which is considered a sacred site for Muslims. Kaaba is placed right at the centre of the Masjid al-Haram mosque in Saudia Arabia. In addition, this site is also known to be one of the most sacred sites in Islam.

Indonesia Fortnite Ban

As a reply to this complaint, Epic Games have released a statement on their official Facebook page. They said that Fortnite does not allow its users to destroy the in-game structures. According to a report by CNN Indonesia, Sandiaga said that Fortnite is directly violating religious values and features like this can trigger disrespectful behaviour between religious communities and encourage acts of violence.

Because of this, he has instructed the team to review and immediately issue a ban on this game. He also wishes to warn some game developers to be careful with such matters. On the other hand, Epic Games also have released a reply for the same. 

They took to their Facebook page and wrote that that the team respects all religions and works closely with the in-game content makers of the players in order to provide a safe gaming experience for all the players. According to CNN Indonesia, Indonesia’s Minister of Communication and Information, Johnny G. Plate also released a statement about the same and confirmed that the content was created by a player and not Epic Games themselves. He also added that his team is now planning to collaborate with National Police to track down the creator who was responsible for releasing such offensive content in Fortnite.