Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp Remain Silent Amid Govt Registration Deadline

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Ethical Hacker Indonesia founder Teguh Aprianto shared his personal opinion regarding the various major social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and WhatsApp which have not registered their companies as electronic system operators (PSE) to Indonesia’s Communication and Informatics Ministry (Kominfo). 

In his Twitter thread on July 17, Teguh believes there are a number of reasons why the major companies have not registered, one of them is the fear of violating the company privacy policy and the threat of possibly breaching users’ privacy through - at least - three problematic regulations from Kominfo Regulation No. 5/2020 overseeing PSE and private spaces. 

“If the platform registers themselves then they can be violating their own privacy policy and our privacy as users,” Teguh wrote on Sunday, Bisnis.com reported. 

Another Article in the Ministry’s regulation that he believes is problematic and opens up a wide interpretation is Article 9 (3) and (4). “These Articles are too dangerous as [the wording of] ‘disturbing the public' & 'disturbing public order' [can be interpreted widely]. This can be abused to put down critics despite being delivered in a peaceful manner. What is the basis? The government just needs to answer this.”

Apart from that, there is also Article 14 (3) that can potentially restrict public opinion on the internet and based on the aforementioned Article, he argues, enables the government to erase contents or tweets that the government deems a disturbance towards public order. 

“Why is my content taken down? They [the government] can simply answer it is a ‘public disturbance,’” Teguh Tweeted. 

Lastly, said Teguh, is article 36 which allows law enforcement to request the content of communications and personal data from the public from PSE. He estimates that this article could be misused by the government to limit or end the movement of people who are against the government.

The cybersecurity expert assessed that the government through the Ministry of Communication and Information designed the article with the aim of censoring public content with the government's wishes. 

"What is the guarantee that this will not be misused to limit or end the movements of those who are against the government? There is nothing right?" Teguh wrote.

Kominfo previously required private domestic and foreign PSEs such as Google, Twitter, Facebook, and others to immediately register their platforms before July 20, 2022. As of today, or two days before the deadline, Monday, 18 July, through the pse.kominfo.go.id, as many as 86 foreign PSEs have registered to the system.

However, the three multinational tech giants have not registered while those that have include TikTok, Linktree, and Spotify. As of today, 5,743 companies are registered as private sector PSE with 86 of them foreign companies. 

BISNIS

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