The government already has outrageous powers to punish people for what they say online, thanks to vague defamation laws that could land you in jail for insulting authorities in a tweet or Facebook post.
But apparently some people in the government still feel that Indonesians have too much freedom online.
Coordinating Minister of Political, Legal and Security Affairs Luhut Binsar Panjaitan, often considered one of President Joko Widodo’s closest advisors, said that social media needs to be disciplined and used for “national interests”, rather than simply being a tool used to make money.
“People [using social media] must be disciplined. In a democratic country there should be rules. If it is not curbed, it will lead to a lot of anarchy,” Luhut said on the sidelines of the Indonesian Palm Oil Conference in Bali on Thursday, as quoted by Republika.
Following a widely criticized circular on hate speech released by the National Police that instructed officers to look for hate speech (which can be defined as anything from insults to defamation) online, the police announced that they were investigating at least 180,000 social media accounts for possible hate speech crimes.
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