Indonesia: Digital freedom decline poses risks for 2024 elections

By Zeus Legaspi

Southeast Asian lawmakers are concerned over restrictions on Indonesia’s freedom of speech as digital spaces become increasingly monitored ahead of the country’s elections next year.

ASEAN Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR), in a statement on Tuesday, May 30, said that Indonesia’s Electronic and Information and Transaction (ITE) Law has been used by powerful individuals to criminalize and silence critics.

The lawmakers conducted a fact-finding mission where they found that the law’s ambiguous articles on defamation have been weaponized even against peaceful expressions of dissent.

“The ambiguous provisions in the ITE Law are clearly being misused and pose a great threat to meaningful discussions of political opinions online, which is particularly concerning with elections on the horizon,” said APHR member and Timor-Leste lawmaker Elvina Sousa Carvalho.

APHR said that this can be seen in the ongoing prosecution of human rights defenders Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti who were reported under the ITE law for discussing allegations of a local politician’s involvement in mining activities in Papua in a YouTube video.

“APHR joins Indonesian civil society in calling on the Indonesian government and House of Representatives to enact a comprehensive revision of the law, and for authorities to halt the use of the law pending the revision,” Carvalho added.

Article 27 Section 3 of the ITE law, ratified in 2008, prohibits the distribution of electronic information and documents with “contents of affronts and/or defamation”.

“Continued prosecutions under the ITE Law would call into question whether the upcoming elections are truly democratic,” the lawmaker said.

Elections and digital freedom

Civil society organizations in Indonesia have also expressed their concerns about the increased monitoring of social media content, saying that these threats to internet freedom have caused a “chilling effect,” preventing internet users from participating in discussions to avoid legal harassment.

“The internet is now one of the places where citizens and voters exercise their right to freedom of speech the most; if these digital spaces are closed, this poses a risk to the freeness and fairness of the upcoming elections,” said APHR member and Malaysian lawmaker Yuneswaran Ramaraj.

“Elections should be a truly democratic process in which all members of society, especially the marginalized, feel comfortable to openly and peacefully express their views and have meaningful dialogues about the future of the country,” echoed APHR member and Filipino lawmaker Sarah Elago.

“APHR therefore calls on the Indonesian government institutions to increase public participation in digital freedom-related policy making and setting measures to promote a healthy and informed online discourse during the election process,” she added.

Indonesia recently hit the 25-year mark in the establishment of democracy after the fall of the authoritarian New Order regime.