Ipo-chan

You better not be watching any porn, dasar mesum~!

About

Ipo-chan is a moe anthropomorphized character for the Indonesian web filtering service Internet Positif originally designed by illustrator Rouzille Erzabalna and unveiled in July 2015.

Origin

On July 26th, 2015, the Indonesian doujin circle Spring Roll posted two illustrations of an anthropomorphic character embodying the country's web content-filtering service, which was subsequently nicknamed "Ipo-chan" on its offical Facebook page.^[1]

"If Internet Positif had a Gijinka version. Her name is I.Po-chan. Her hobby is blocking websites. She may look intimidating from the outside, but she can be easily bullied."

The original design of Ipo-chan is credited to Indonesian illustrator and DeviantART user Rouzille Erzabalna.^[10] According to Jurnal Otaku's interview with Rouzille Erzabalna,^[2] the artist originally conceived the idea behind Ipo-chan shortly after Tifatul Sembiring, then-the Minister of Communication and Information of Indonesia who had overseen the implementation of filters for online censorship across the country, stepped down from his office in October 2014.^[9] However, Rouzille didn't publicly unveil the character until after seeing the positive feedback over another Gijinka of two popular Indonesian instant noodle brands created by pixiv user Valoreins.^[3]

Ipo-chan prototype design

On August 10th, 2015, Spring Roll submitted a full biography for Ipo-chan on their facebook page.^[16]

"Ipo-chan
Age 20, Single
B-W-H: 84 -64 -89
Height: 157 cm
Weight: This information is blocked by Internet Positif
Hobbies: Blocking Websites, surveillance on netizens, browsing the web
Personalities:
- Tsundere but can be bullied
- Very sensitive, especially towards lewd content
- Disciplined and loyal to the Minister
- Messes up when blocking websites which causes controversy among netizens
Things she likes:
- The Minister
- Educational Websites
Things she doesn't like:
- Bad websites especially the lewd ones
- Manga, Hentai, Japanese Adult Videos
- Proxy
- Immoral and perverted netizens
- Hamster
Short Explanation:
Ipo-chan is a program created to filter negative websites. Ipo-chan began operating on July 26th, 2015, but after running for two weeks, Ipo-chan is surprised to discover a big phenomena that has happened to her…"

Internet Censorship in Indonesia

Internet Positif^[15] is an online content-filtering service developed by the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information and widely used by major internet service providers in Indonesia, mainly for the purpose of censoring certain types of digital media content that are officially deemed as inappropriate or immoral by the government. The service, which relies on methods like IP blocking and DNS hijacking filter and censor content, has been a long-standing topic of controversy and debate since the legislation of the Law on Information and Electronic Transactions (ITE Law) in March 2008, which broadened the authority of the Indonesian authorities to regulate the flow of information and censor a wide range of online content that fall under vaguely worded categories, such as pornography, gambling, hate incitement, exposure of private information, intellectual property, false information, and other miscellaneous content that "degrades a person or group on the basis of a physical or nonphysical attribute," such as a disability.

Spread

Throughout July 2015, the popularity of Ipo-chan was picked up by several Indonesian news sites such as Alfido,^[4] Duniaku,^[5] MetroTV,^[6] and Kaori Nusantara.^[7] On July 30th, a discussion thread regarding Ipo-chan was submitted to the Indonesian forum site Kaskus,^[8] which garnered more than 680 posts and 423 shares in less than a week. On July 31st, Jurnal Otaku published an interview with Ipo-chan creator Rouzille Erzabalna.^[2] There are at least two Facebook pages dedicated to Ipo-chan, with each iteration commanding more than 3,000 likes.^[11][12] On August 2nd, YouTuber Ace Yoen uploaded a Miku Miku Dance remix video titled "Ipo-chan – Marine Dreamin'" (shown below), which gained more than 19,000 views in less than a week.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References