Responding to the government's plan to formulate a Draft Law (RUU) on Combating Disinformation and Foreign Propaganda, Amnesty International Indonesia Executive Director Usman Hamid, said:
"The government's plan to formulate a RUU on Combating Disinformation and Foreign Propaganda, which was marked by the release of an academic draft from the Ministry of Law, is a move the urgency of which is appropriate for us to question. The government argues that this regulation is necessary to counter information and propaganda attacks from foreign parties that harm the national interest.
Instead of protecting freedom of expression, this RUU has the potential to add to the long list of problematic laws that are often used to silence freedom of expression. The plan to formulate this legislation is unnecessary and has a high potential to violate the Constitution, specifically Article 28E of the 1945 Constitution and Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantee freedom of expression.
The main problem lies in the potential for 'problematic articles' and the determination of the definition of 'foreign propaganda,' which will be highly subjective according to the government's wishes. Giving the state the authority to determine which information is true and which is considered 'foreign propaganda' places the government as the sole holder of the truth.
Even before this RUU, the government through the President often spread disinformation by accusing civil society movements critical of the government of being funded by foreign entities. The President often links criticism to foreign powers, although he never explicitly mentions which foreign parties he means. Because he never explicitly mentions them, this narrative of foreign interference by the President can be categorised as a form of state-sponsored disinformation.
Legal products like this RUU are vulnerable to misuse to censor criticism that is inconvenient for those in power by labelling it as a threat to sovereignty or dangerous incitement.
Aside from this, the urgency of this RUU is very weak and full of political contradictions. The narrative of 'foreign threats' often touted by the President seems contradictory to his aggressive foreign policy of inviting foreign investment such has his most recent invitation to British universities to open campuses in Indonesia.
This inconsistency raises suspicions that this RUU is not purely for national security, but rather an attempt to legalise the regime's paranoid attitude towards public criticism. If public criticism is constantly linked to 'foreign powers' and 'foreign propaganda' without clear evidence, it is the government itself that is spreading disinformation to the public.
Therefore, the drafting of this RUU lacks sufficient urgency. Instead of protecting the nation, this regulation risks becoming a new tool to silence human rights defenders and critical citizens. To guarantee the protection of freedom of expression, the plan to draft this RUU must be stopped immediately."
Background
Earlier this year, the government was in the process of planning a RUU on Combating Disinformation and Foreign Propaganda. This plan was marked by the circulation of an academic paper on the RUU from the Ministry of Law in 2026.
The 67-page document in PDF format essentially proposes the urgent need to formulate a Draft Law on Combating Disinformation and Foreign Propaganda and suggests its inclusion in the House of Representatives (DPR) Priority Legislative Program (Prolegnas) for 2026.
The urgency for drafting the bill as mentioned in the academic paper is to provide legal certainty regarding the handling of disinformation and foreign propaganda that can threaten national information sovereignty, divide national unity, influence democratic processes and weaken national resilience.
This, according to the document, is linked to the global context where the practice of information warfare and foreign influence operations are becoming increasingly intensive, utilising social media, artificial intelligence and transnational networks. Meanwhile it is claimed that the existing legal framework in Indonesia does not comprehensively regulate the prevention, detection and countermeasures against disinformation and foreign propaganda in an integrated manner.
According to media reports, Coordinating Minister for Legal, Human Rights, Immigration and Correctional Institutions, Yusril Ihza Mahendra, revealed on January 14 that President Prabowo Subianto had ordered the formulation of this RUU to counter information attacks and propaganda from foreign parties that harm national interests.
Meanwhile the DPR, which is dominated by political parties that support the government, signalled its support for the government's plan to draft the RUU. On January 16 the DPR's Commission I Deputy Chairperson Sukamta said they appreciated the government's initiative as a response to the increasingly massive and systemic threat of disinformation in digital space.
[Translated by James Balowski. The original title of the article was "Hentikan penyusunan RUU Penanggulangan Disinformasi dan Propaganda Asing".]
