January 28, 2026 | 12:40 pm
There is no need to continue with the anti-disinformation and foreign propaganda bill. Existing legislation is sufficient.
If President Prabowo Subianto were open to criticism, there would be no need for his administration to draw up an Anti-Disinformation and Foreign Propaganda Bill. This bill will further tighten restrictions on freedom of opinion. The existing laws and state institutions are more than enough to combat disinformation.
The desire to draw up the bill to fight “disinformation and foreign propaganda” comes directly from Prabowo himself. The Ministry of Law has translated Prabowo’s whims into an academic draft that began circulating in mid-January 2026. Now, the government is trying to wedge this bill into the 2026 National Legislation Program—a list that was supposedly finalized back in September.
The problem is that Prabowo cannot differentiate between criticism and disinformation. He considers public criticism as “foreign-sponsored disinformation.” Those who disagree with the government are labelled “foreign stooges.”
Prabowo has held this opinion, which could be labeled as paranoia, for more than a decade, especially during presidential election campaigns. So, it is only fair that the people are asking: is this bill aimed at protecting Prabowo himself or the Indonesian people?
Disinformation, also propaganda, is a threat throughout the world—despite the fact that the government itself also spreads it through social media influencers and state institutions. A number of nations have drawn up special laws to deal with it.
In nations that respect freedom of expression, such as Britain, this law is used not to regulate content, but the perpetrators. The British government does not try to control the content of social media or any mass media.
But in countries like Singapore or Russia, the laws are aimed at directing people’s opinions, so they are not different from those of the government. In those two nations, these information laws are effective because of at least two factors: strong leadership and a sound economy.
Indonesia, frankly, has neither. The economy is fragile and the leadership is not strong. Instead of successfully preventing disinformation, the planned implementation of an anti-disinformation and foreign propaganda law would become a tool for the government to put pressure on its own people.
And the understanding of disinformation and propaganda is vague and biased because it depends very much on who defines them. If the government views public criticism as disinformation and advocacy by NGOs as propaganda, the provisions of this bill could be flexibly interpreted and used to prosecute members of the public based on the interpretation of the law enforcement officers.
Preventing disinformation and propaganda can actually be done by opening up the flow of information. The public will correct the information that is circulating, including in the media, which will be encouraged to verify it. Even the rapid rise of Artificial Intelligence can become a new tool for quickly fact-checking.
Therefore, it is important for the public to have digital literacy so that they are not easily influenced by disinformation and propaganda. The government can include digital literacy in the school curriculum. This method is more effective than continuing to draft the Disinformation and Foreign Propaganda Countermeasures Bill, which was created based on paranoia or solely to protect the interests of those in power.
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