Pixabay.com/TheDigitalArtist

On 13 January 2025, Communication and Digital (Komdigi) Minister Meutya Hafid inaugurated police Brigadier General Alexander Sabar as the head of the newly-established Digital Space Monitoring Directorate General in her ministry.

Details of what the new directorate general is planning to do remain sketchy. It is clear, however, that it marks a new era in Indonesia’s cyberspace governance, with the state stepping up its security approach to addressing a range of digital challenges.

This could have serious implications for freedom of expression in digital space, given that a police general with vast experience in counter-terrorism and anti-drug operations has been tapped to lead the agency.    

A renewed focus on the digital world

The creation of the digital monitoring directorate general is part of President Prabowo Subianto’s Cabinet restructuring, with Komdigi created to replace the Communication and Information Ministry (Kominfo).

In October, Meutya told reporters that Prabowo wanted to upgrade the nation’s digital oversight for security reasons. The president, the minister said, was paying special attention to digitalisation, specifically digital security, to address issues such as online gambling, predatory online lending schemes, and human trafficking. This is in line with Prabowo’s Asta Cita, or Eight Missions document, which stated that “digitalisation” is considered “a necessity for creating an independent nation”.

Under Kominfo, digital oversight was carried out by the Informatics Application Directorate General (Aptika). It has the authority to block digital content, suspend websites, and even ban platforms from operating in Indonesia. It monitors digital space nonstop with an AIS (short for pengais, or crawler) machine that searches for negative content. This crawler machine has been operating since 2018, a year before the tense 2019 presidential election.

Aptika, however, has other duties related to digital governance. It has five sub-directorates that focus on digital control, digital government, digital business, digital empowerment and digital governance. In other words, online monitoring or surveillance is not the sole focus of Aptika, which, under Kominfo, served as the only digital directorate general in the ministry.

Under Komdigi, however, there are now four directorate generals focusing on digital technology. The other three are the Digital Ecosystem Directorate General, the Digital Governance Directorate General and the Digital Infrastructure Directorate General. This is more than just a matter of bureaucratic nomenclature. It has serious implications that need to be scrutinised carefully.

Stronger state control of cyberspace

In Presidential Regulation No.174/2024, Komdigi basically elevated the Informatics Application Control Directorate under Aptika into a directorate general, an Echelon 1 position responsible directly to the minister. This reflects the government’s wish to tighten its stranglehold on digital technology, which has empowered civil society groups to challenge the powers that be.

To do this, the ministry would have to allocate more budget for digital monitoring. On 22 January, Sabar claimed that his agency  – which had been allocated 172 billion rupiah  – needed another 706 billion rupiahs to optimise its work.

According to the Ministerial Regulation 1/2025, the Digital Space Monitoring Directorate General will have four sub-directorates that focus, respectively, on digital investigation, digital control, digital certification and transaction oversight, and digital oversight strategy and policy. It is tasked with handling suspected digital crimes in accordance with the notorious 2024 Electronic Information and Transaction (ITE) Law, as well as overseeing digital platforms and individual Internet users.

The fact that the new directorate general is led by Sabar, a senior police general, is a clear indication of the ministry’s security approach to dealing with digital technology. Sabar is a former member of the police’s anti-terror squad, Detachment 88, and former director of intelligence for the National Narcotics Agency (BNN). Both agencies are authorized to conduct digital surveillance.

Minister Hafid claimed that Sabar’s appointment reflected the necessity for collaboration between her ministry and law enforcement bodies to address digital threats. Indonesia’s Internet watchdog, SAFEnet, however, has warned against Sabar’s appointment, saying that having a police general as a senior official within the ministry would create “conflicts of interest” and lead to excessive security approach that would “curtail freedom of expression in digital space”. This is because since the ITE law was first enacted in 2008, the police have been accused of using it recklessly to silence critical voices in cyberspace.

Risks of government overreach in policing cyberspace

Concerns about rising cybercrime are understandable, but we cannot ignore the risks of government overreach in their approach to addressing the problem. The appointment of a police general to lead the Digital Space Monitoring Directorate General has evoked fears that Komdigi will resort to repressive measures when managing online speech.

The Prabowo government must ensure that its digital policies are in line with democratic principles and are not used to advance short-term political interests. Global Internet freedom watchdog Freedom House has consistently classified Indonesia’s cyberspace as only partly free, highlighting the many cases in which state actors engage in digital propaganda operations and Internet users are prosecuted for expressing their opinions online. On a scale of 0 to 100, in which 100 is the freest, Indonesia scores just 49, according to the latest Freedom House report.

Strengthening digital security must not come at the expense of digital freedom and democracy – these are principles that must not be compromised.

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