45% of Indonesia’s 264 million-strong population were estimated to be active users of social media in 2017, so it comes as no surprise that the country has a specialised law governing cyberspace.
Known as Undang-undang Informasi dan Transaksi Elektronik, or UU ITE, the law was passed through Parliament in 2008. It was then revised in 2016, in ways that reflected President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo’s grievances over the smear campaign launched against him in the 2014 election. Yet UU ITE is notorious among human rights activists for often being used to silence dissent or criticism against those in government.
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