Heaptalk, Jakarta — Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo) announced the formation of the Social Media Council (DMS) as a digital space dispute mediator.
According to Budi Arie Setiadi, Minister of Communication and Information, this Social Media Council is part of the Indonesian government’s response to society’s advice, supported by UNESCO academic studies.
“The discourse on establishing a Social Media Council is a positive response from the government to input provided by Civil Society Organization (CSO) friends and is supported by an academic study initiated by UNESCO,” Minister Budi said.
The Social Media Council’s establishment plan was discussed last year to minimize the negative impact of social media utilization. Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) also proposed this outline during the second ITE Law amendment, but unfortunately, the government rejected the proposal.
Nevertheless, the Executive Director of Southeast Asia Freedom (SAFEnet), Nenden Sekar Arum, considers that the current formation of a Social media council is no longer relevant, specifically if the DMS origination is only through ministerial regulations. Consequently, Arum revealed that the establishment of DMS must be carried out carefully.
“Previously, we proposed DMS as a new independent institution that contains various stakeholders and functions to replace the Ministry of Tech’s role in conducting content moderation as the Ministry has had significant authority in moderating content so far,” SAFEnet affirmed.
Besides, the formation of the DMS designed by the Ministry is also considered very vague and could conflict with the initial principles. SAFEnet emphasized that the Social Media Council must adopt all principles, particularly independence and multistakeholderism.
“DMS must be independent, government or social media companies-free control. Ministry’s control over DMS will lead to censorship and worsen democracy and civil liberties in the digital space.” SAFEnet said.
To avoid absolute government control, SAFEnet emphasizes that this council must be filled by representatives of various parties, such as academics, content creators, civil society, journalists, creative workers, and other minority groups.
On the other hand, supervision considerations are also a significant concern for establishing DMS, which is feared to trigger self-censorship by companies and social media users. Thus, instead of carrying out supervision, SAFEnet urges DMS only to decide disputes between users and social media companies regarding losses faced.
Following the existing considerations, SAFEnet urges the Ministry of Communication and Information to do several things, including:
- A reconsideration plan to establish a DMS under the executive bodies.
- Civil society organization involvement who is working in the human rights field in the social media council planning process.
