Indonesian gov't orders Meta and TikTok to raise the moderation of harmful content

The government of Indonesia has called on social network platforms, Meta and TikTok, to raise the moderation of harmful content, including disinformation, which is usually spread via their platforms.

The Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs (Komdigi) revealed that they had summoned representatives from TikTok as well as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram parent company Meta Platforms to address disinformation and fake news that circulate on their platforms. This comes as the move towards social media as a source of news has also fuelled misinformation and disinformation, making it flourish.

Disinformation triggered public protests in Indonesia

According to reports, the Indonesian government’s move follows community demonstrations on Monday. Komdigi Deputy Minister Angga Raka Prabowo told Reuters that the disinformation on the social media platforms angered communities, resulting in public protests on Monday, August 25th.

Monitoring initiatives by Komdigi show that most of the disinformation content is widely spread on TikTok and Instagram.

With the summons, the government urged the platforms to improve their content moderation and act more proactively. TikTok and Meta risk suspension and hefty fines if they fail to comply with the government’s demands.

“They must comply with the rules because our goal is to protect this country. Penalties in the rules are reprimands, fines, temporary suspension, revoking of access or even kicking them out from a list of registered electronic platforms,” said Angga.

“The impact (of disinformation) is chaos… And people do not receive accurate and complete information,” he added.

This comes as some studies have shown that TikTok, in particular, has ushered in a new era of misinformation online, exposing its users, mostly the young, to inaccurate information.

The Guardian carried out an investigation and found that when TikTok users searched for top mental health videos, over half of them contained misinformation. This ranged from harmless advice like consuming oranges in the shower to ease anxiety to dangerous misinformation about mental health and dubious treatments.

Indonesia plans to summon other social platforms

According to a Reuters report, the Indonesian government will also ask the platforms to delete such content, including anything pertaining to pornography and online gambling.

While separate meetings with Meta and TikTok are set for this week, Angga revealed that the government will also extend an invitation to Elon Musk’s X platform and YouTube.

Both TikTok and Meta account for more than 100 million accounts each, based in Indonesia, which is one of the biggest in the world.

Angga cited some cases of disinformation in the country, which included a deep fake video of Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati saying teachers were a burden on the country.

He added that some content has mislabelled previous footage of riots in the capital Jakarta as being recent. Angga was referring to Monday’s public protests when hundreds clashed with police and faced arrest. Some of the protesters were below 18 years of age, as they protested against excessive pay and perks for members of parliament.

The Child Protection Commission revealed that some of the detained youth had joined the demonstrations after watching TikTok videos calling for protests, according to Angga.

The spread of disinformation on social media platforms is not unique to Indonesia alone. Researchers at MIT found that fake news can spread up to 10 times faster than true reporting on social media.

The researchers also indicated that when explosive and misinforming posts go viral, their corrections do not get as widely viewed or believed.

In Taiwan, the government earlier this year accused China of AI-powered misinformation to divide the people of Taiwan, according to the National Security Bureau of that Island.

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