DPR Urges Buzzer Handling, Komdigi: There Needs To Be Revision Of PP 71/2019

JAKARTA - Deputy Chairman of Commission I of the Indonesian House of Representatives, Sukamta, emphasized the need to strengthen regulations and collaboration between institutions to deal with the circulation of disinformation, hoaxes, and organized buzzer activities in the digital space.

"This political buzzer plays a significant role in leading opinions on social media. Well, in my opinion, the development of the buzzer industry contributes to what is called a decay of political communication where hate narratives, hoaxes, disinformation are massively produced. Now, this is not just a matter of digital ethics, but also a problem of the political economy of the media," Sukamto said at a working meeting of Commission I DPR RI with the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs on Monday, December 8.

Responding to this, the Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs, Meutya Hafid, assessed that the issue of misinformation and disinformation did not only occur in Indonesia, but was a major concern in other countries.

"The issue of misinformation, disinformation and hoaxes is also a concern for many governments in other countries, meaning that this is not only typical in Indonesia, but many of other countries," said Meutya.

Meanwhile, the Director General of Digital Spatial Control of the Ministry of Komdigi, Alexander Sabar, added that handling hoaxes must be carried out with the principle of prudence, especially to avoid overblocking practices and ensure that civilian space remains open.

"In its implementation, we refer to the principles of international human rights. Which in every action we take, mainly related to moderation and implementation of takedown and blocking requests, it must ask for recommendations from the relevant ministries or institutions. And in that implementation we carry out in a transparent and accountable manner, "explained Alex.

Alex also revealed that content checks are carried out every day through collaborative work with BSSN, Polri (Bareskrim and Baintelkam), TNI Satsiber, and the Coordinating Ministry for Political, Legal and Security Affairs.

However, he acknowledged there were technical problems. Our new engine is able to detect at the IP address level or domain as well as public social media. We have not been able to detect the pattern of misinformation automatically. Analysis of the substance of the narrative still has to be done manually, "he explained.

According to him, there needs to be a revision of PP 71/2019 in accordance with the mandate of the second amendment to the ITE Law, which is considered important so that the state does not depend on the goodwill of digital platforms when submitting requests for content reduction.

"Because at this time, our request will be compared or juxtaposed with the community guideline owned by each platform. Whether it exists in the prohibition in their community guideline or not," he said.