Kominfo Bersama Bawaslu Forms Task Force To Supervise Campaigns In Digital Spaces

Director General of Public Communication Information (Dirjen IKP) of the Ministry of Communication and Information Usman Kansong. (Photo: Doc. Antara)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemenkominfo) together with the General Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) formed a task force (task force) to oversee campaigns and prevent the spread of unlawful content on social media ahead of the 2024 General Election.

"Kemenkominfo melalui Direktorat Jenderal Aplikasi Informatika (Aptica) bersama Bawaslu membentuk satgas untuk mengawasi jalannya kampanye di medsos," kata Direktur Jenderal Informasi Komunikasi Publik (Dirjen IKP) Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informatika Usman Kansong, dikutip dari Antara, Sabtu 5 Agustus.

Usman said the formation of the task force was a follow-up to the cooperation agreements (PKS) between the two institutions aimed at preventing, supervising, and taking action against negative content on the internet that contradicts legislation.

According to General Election Commission (KPU) Regulation Number 15 of 2023, election participants can carry out campaigns through at most twenty accounts for each type of platform that must be registered with the KPU first.

He mentioned that there are three platforms that have shown a commitment to support smart elections in Indonesia, namely META, Twitter, and Google groups. Thus, the appointed task forces can coordinate directly with representatives of the three platforms if they find election violations on social media.

On a separate occasion, Puadi as the Division for Handling Violations and Information Data of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) explained, in the process of prosecuting campaigns in the digital space, Bawaslu will examine various content suspected of violating the rules. After that, if proven to have violated, then give a recommendation to the Ministry of Communication and Information to take down.

"When finding complaints or indications of problematic internet content, including from one of the candidates, Bawaslu studied then recommended the Ministry of Communication and Information to lower content or close accounts from the platform if found guilty," Puadi said on Saturday.

Executive Director of The Indonesian Institute Adinda T Muchtar assessed that political campaigns on social media should already have regulations and sanctions, let alone reflecting on the 2019 election.

"The experience of previous elections, when the arrangements were not carried out in detail, the impact was quite serious, ranging from the spread of conflict, identity politicization, to polarization," said Dinda.

He added, in addition to supervising on social media, election organizers can also maximize the function of the platform to spread positive content related to political education and the stages of elections, especially to reach the younger generation who currently like to use social media.

"Social media now plays an important role in political education as well as election literacy," said Dinda.