LBH Jakarta Urges Kominfo to Revoke Rules on PSE

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Jakarta Legal Aid Institute or LBH Jakarta as of today has received 182 public complaints related to the blocking of a number of sites that are not registered as electronic system operators or PSE based on the Communications and Information Technology Minister’s Regulation No. 5 of 2020. The complaint post dubbed #SaveDigitalFreedom has been opened since Saturday, August 30.

“The profiles of the complainants vary, ranging from creative workers [such as artists, musicians, graphic designers, content creators, and others], developers, gamers, freelancers, lecturers, journalists, to business entities engaged in business digital,” said the institute’s public attorney Teo Reffelsen in a written statement, Tuesday, August 2.

The complainants stated that they recorded losses due to a lack of access to paid services such as Steam, Epic, and several other sites. They also lost their income because of failed transactions via the global payment service platform Paypal.

“Not only that, the loss of access to sites such as Steam, Epic, and others also eliminates the income of some complainants who use these services. The losses suffered by the complainants can reach hundreds of millions of rupiah,” Teo added.

Additionally, they lost jobs. The majority of creative workers engaged in the digital sector are highly dependent on the sites. The complainants also experienced doxing after protesting and voicing rejection of the site blocking and the rule enforcement.

“LBH Jakarta assesses that the policy sacrifices the community, causing large and widespread losses, especially for creative industry workers,” said Teo.

The government’s decision to temporarily unblock Paypal for the people to migrate their funds also proved that the government was not careful and thorough in calculating the impacts of the site blocking. 

“The government has clearly violated the principle of good governance and Law No. 30/2014 on government administration. The blocking procedure is not in line with human rights standards,” Teo argued.

Thus, the complaint post is still open until Friday, August 5, via pengaduan@bantuanhukum.or.id. More information can be accessed via its social media channels.

LBH Jakarta also urged Kominfo Ministry to unblock the sites and revoke the policy to stop the impact and loss on the people. “LBH Jakarta will take legal possible efforts with the public to cancel arbitrary actions and policies of the government that violate the law and human rights,” Teo concluded.

DEWI NURITA

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