07/06/2022 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/05/2022 21:20
The two-day event brought together a diverse group of participants - 260 in total on site and via Zoom and YouTube. On the first day, representatives of civil society, academia, social media platforms and the government discussed the findings of the research commissioned by UNESCO to CfDS on Indonesia's regulatory framework concerning online harmful content. The Phase I of this research showed that there is no distinction between illegal and harmful content, and the definition of what constitutes "illegal" is too broad and ambiguous, ultimately endangering freedom of expression.
Mr Deden Imadudin, representative of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, encouraged civil society organizations to contribute to the revision of the existing 2008 law on Electronic Information and Transactions, which has been submitted for discussion to the Indonesian House of Representatives.
The Phase II of CfDS research, which included focus group discussions with local communities (religious minorities, LGBTQIA+ groups, pro-democracy activists, etc.), in turn demonstrated that the existing regulatory framework and content moderation practices have negatively affected the life and work of these communities. They often feel powerless in relation to social media platforms, both in terms of the hate speech directed against them and when their content is misjudged and taken down, while actual harmful content may remain online.