A bill is being tabled in Indonesia which if passed will have significant impact on foreign streaming platforms and possibly video sharing platforms as well.
The bill is entitled Draft Bill on Broadcasting (“Draft Bill”).
The bill seeks to expand the meaning of broadcasting to cover the "internet", based on the Article 1 point (2) of the Draft Bill:
“Broadcasting is an activity or act of transmitting broadcast signals using part of the radio frequency spectrum via terrestrial transmission, cable, satellite, internet, or other transmission systems, or by using other electromagnetic spectrum in accordance with technological developments to be received simultaneously and/ or can be accessed again by the public via broadcast receiving devices."
[Bahasa Indonesia:
“Penyiaran adalah suatu kegiatan atau tindakan mentransmisikan sinyal Siaran dengan menggunakan bagian dari spektrum frekuensi radio melalui transmisi terestrial, kabel, satelit, internet, atau sistem transmisi lainnya, atau dengan menggunakan spektrum elektromagnetik lainnya yang sesuai dengan perkembangan teknologi untuk dapat diterima secara bersamaan dan/atau dapat diakses kembali oleh masyarakat dengan perangkat penerima Siaran.”]
The implication is that internet streaming platforms will come under the purview of the Broadcasting Law and therefore subject to its licensing regime including submission of content for censorship.
By way of background, there have been previous attempts (from local private sectors) to subjugate foreign streaming platforms to come under the purview of the Broadcasting Law through a constitutional review. In this application to the Constitutional Court, the request was to expanded to include the interpretation of broadcasting to cover "New Media". This constitutional review was at the request of a particular Indonesian broadcasting station. However, this application was dismissed by the Constitutional Court on 21 March 2024.
The Draft Bill, initially proposed on 17 December 2019, is currently in the "Preparation Stage". The first of the three steps is the Commission Proposed Bill (Bahasa Indonesia: RUU Usulan Komisi). The subsequent steps are Harmonization (Bahasa Indonesia: Harmonisasi) and the Determination of the House of Representatives' Proposal (Bahasa Indonesia: Penetapan Usul DPR). Following the Preparation stage, the Discussion stage will commence, divided into two stages: Discussion Stage I and Discussion Stage II (Indonesian: Pembicaraan Tingkat I dan Pembicaraan Tingkat II). The stages and steps of this Draft Bill can be monitored through this link.
Foreign streaming platforms should closely monitor the passage of this bill and consider how best to comply with this proposed law should it be eventually passed.
For now, the public reaction seems to be focused on the draft law's other provision: proposed prohibition of investigative journalism rather than the impact on internet streaming. This prohibition is one of the new introductions under the proposed law.
