Indonesia's Strategy to Make Digital Platform Governance More Accountable
Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria has revealed Indonesia’s strategy for digital platform governance, which now adopts a more accountable approach by shifting from content control to systemic-level governance.
One implementation step is through Government Regulation No. 17 of 2025 on the Governance of Electronic System Operators in Child Protection, also known as PP Tunas.
“The approach to regulating platforms must be balanced. How to protect citizens’ rights, and how to make these platforms safe and protected for everyone,” Nezar said in his statement received and confirmed in Jakarta on Friday.
This view was also expressed by Nezar at the UNESCO Capacity Building Workshops for Southeast Asia Regulators, Digital Platforms, and Civil Society in Semarang on Thursday (7/5).
The latest approach balances digital security aspects with freedom of expression in the digital space.
He explained that the reason for this approach is that if the government overly emphasises security, the civil space for expression will increasingly diminish.
Conversely, an approach prioritising freedom without governance risks opening spaces for the spread of disinformation and misinformation.
To optimise the digital platform governance approach, Nezar said Indonesia bases it on three main pillars: strengthening the legal framework, systemic governance for vulnerable groups, and digital literacy and multi-stakeholder dialogue.
In addition to PP Tunas, updates to the Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE) and the Personal Data Protection Law (PDP) also implement these three pillars as the basis for national digital law.
In this way, the digital governance approach is not only built through closed negotiations between the government and digital platforms alone.
“One thing we must stop is treating digital platform governance as a series of bilateral, ad hoc, and closed negotiations between the government and individual platforms,” Nezar stated.
Indonesia believes that in the future, digital platform governance must be built institutionally, systematically, and transparently, involving all elements from regulators, digital platforms, civil society, journalists, academics, to youth groups.
Discussing digital platform governance more broadly in Southeast Asia, Nezar said countries in the region need to ensure that principles of human rights, transparency, and accountability are truly applied in the daily practices of digital platforms.
He also mentioned that ASEAN and UNESCO cooperation is an important step to build more accountable regional digital platform governance standards while still respecting freedom of expression.
“The goal is a digital environment that protects users, especially the most vulnerable, without reducing the open, plural, and democratic public space,” said the Deputy Minister.
As a shared learning material, Nezar said Indonesia is ready to be one of the countries testing the implementation of human rights-based systemic risk assessments for digital platforms in the ASEAN region.
“I think Indonesia is ready to pilot this approach based on PP Tunas and to share findings with our ASEAN partners,” Nezar said.