BlackBerry blocks porn on its phones in Indonesia

BlackBerry's unique decision to block pornography on its smart phones in Indonesia is leading to speculation that other Muslim nations might make similar demands while at the same time driving up the stock price of the phones' Canadian maker, Research in Motion (RIM).

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Indonesian officials had threatened to shut down BlackBerry's web browsing service by the end of the month if Research in Motion didn't block pornographic content to its 2 million Indonesian users.

Indonesia is the world's most-populous Muslim country and enacted a strict anti-pornography law in 2008. according to SC Magazine, a publication for information technology security consultants. This is the first time RIM has agreed to block content, though the company agreed last year to allow authorities in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to read encrypted texts send by BlackBerry Messenger users.

India is negotiating with RIM for similar access to encrypted email, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Saudi Arabia, another strick Muslim country with BlackBerry users, hasn't asked BlackBerry to block pornography, according to Zawya Dow Jones.

The Jakarta Globe reported that Indonesian officials were pleased. But the paper also said the threat of a shutdown of internet access to its users was significant for BlackBerry because Indonesia is one of RIM's fastest-growing markets.

Investors appeared to like the decision. RIM shares closed up 38 cents at $62.15 on the Toronto Stock Exchange Tuesday.

However, that optimism for the move might be blunted in the future.

"RIM's recurring kerfuffles with international governments, originally over security and now over other issues as well, could begin to substantially slow down new subscriber growth internationally," wrote Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum after the news broke, according to MSNBC.

Gelblum added that over 90 percent of net subscriber adds in the past two quarters were from outside North America, "implying that any negative impact from continued (government) uncertainty could have a major impact on ... growth and thereby RIM's highly lucrative services revenue."