Eating Lots Of Victims, NasDem Politicians Asking The Controversial Article In The ITE Law To Be Revoked

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JAKARTA - NasDem faction member of Commission III of the DPR RI, Taufik Basari, supports the discourse on the revision of Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE Law). Not only that, he also pushed for controversial articles in the law to be abolished or repealed.

The articles that he considers controversial or often referred to as rubber articles are Article 27 paragraph 3 related to online insult or defamation and Article 28 Paragraph 2 regarding the dissemination of information to cause hatred or hostility towards SARA.

"Articles that have the potential to become rubber articles should be deleted or revoked," said Taufik in a written statement to reporters, Wednesday, February 17.

He said the two articles that were often interpreted had claimed many victims. In addition, anyone can report to each other and become an arena for criminalization using these two articles.

"Anyone can be criminalized, can report to each other. Ordinary people, figures, and journalists can also become entangled," he said.

In addition, it is feared that these two articles will be used to silence critical voices against the government.

"Contents of insulting, defamation, including sentences cause a sense of hatred and enmity in Article 27 paragraph 3 and Article 28 paragraph 2, whose interpretation can be broad," he explained.

"Criticism can be considered insulting, it can even be seen as spreading information with the aim of creating hatred," added Taufik.

For this reason, he then urged that articles that are often used as tools to criminalize and silence freedom of expression should be abolished. Because, this can have a bad impact, namely creating fear in the community in conveying criticism.

"It is better if articles that have the potential to become rubber articles be deleted or revoked. Next, it is necessary to think about it so that people are given sufficient knowledge about digital literacy, especially in producing digital content," he said.

Previously, President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) opened the opportunity to revise Law Number 19 of 2016 concerning Electronic Information and Transactions (UU ITE) which has been considered to have many rubber articles.

The discourse on the revision of the ITE Law was conveyed by President Jokowi at the opening of the TNI and Polri Leadership Meeting at the State Palace, Jakarta. Through a broadcast uploaded to the Presidential Secretariat YouTube on Monday, February 15, the former governor of DKI Jakarta asked National Police Chief Listyo Sigit Prabowo to be careful in handling reporting using the ITE Law.

In addition, he said, the ITE Law is considered not to provide justice, so the government will propose a revision of the law which is often seen as restricting freedom of expression.

"If the ITE Law cannot provide a sense of justice, yes, I will ask the DPR to jointly revise this law. This ITE Law. Because this is where the upstream went. The upstream is here. Revision," said Jokowi in front of him. the TNI and Polri Rapim participants.

"Especially removing rubber articles which can have different interpretations. Which are easy to interpret unilaterally," he added.