Presented by Press Freedom Defender Team, July 2020.

1. Internet Shutdown in Indonesia
Source: Change.org Indonesia
July 2020

2. Circumstances
● On 18 August 2019, there was peaceful
demonstrations due to protests over racism
experienced by Papuan students in Surabaya and
Malang in 16 August 2019.
● Papua has long been a conflict area. The government
uses security approaches and technological
oppression to curb freedom of expression and
freedom to assembly.
● This case isn’t first time Throttling/Bandwidth Internet
in Indonesia. Previous cases had occurred during the
riots after the election in May, 2019. On 22–25 May
2019, the government “ordered” ISP to slowing down
image and video in WhatsApp and social media.
Source: AP/Tatan Syuflana

3. Facts
● Bandwidth throttling in several areas of
West Papua Province and Papua Province
on August 19, 2019 from 13.00 Eastern
Indonesian Time to 20.30 Eastern
Indonesian Time
● Internet shutdown completely in Papua
Province (29 cities / districts) and West
Papua Province (13 cities / districts)
dated August 21 - September 4, 2019 at
23:00 Eastern Indonesian Time
● Internet shutdown continues in 4 cities /
districts in Papua Province (ie Jayapura
City, Jayapura Regency, Mimika Regency,
and Jayawijaya Regency) and 2 cities /
districts in West Papua Province (ie
Manokwari City and Sorong City) from
September 4-9, 2019
Source:https://netblocks.org/reports/internet-disrupted-in-papua-indonesia-amid-
mass-protests-and-calls-for-independence-eBOgrDBZ

4. MICT Release Government Statement
Press Release No.
154/HM/KOMINFO/
08/2019
Press Release No.
155/HM/KOMINFO
/08/2019
Press Release No.
159/HM/KOMINF
O/08/2019
Press Release No.
170/HM/KOMINFO
/09/2019
Press Release No.
173/HM/KOMINFO
/09/2019
Mon, 19 Aug 2019 Wed, 21 Aug 2019 Friday, 23 Aug 2019
Temporary slowing
down internet access
to combat hoaxes.
Internet shutdown in
Papua and West Papua
to handle national
security situation
Continue to internet
blockage until situation in
Papua and West Papua
back to normal.
Wed, 4 Sep 2019
MICT open some areas in
Papua (19) and West
Papua (10), while others
still having internet
shutdown.
Sat, 7 Sep 2019
On Friday, 6 Sep 2019
22.30 local time, MICT
open Nabire and Dogiyai,
but still close 8 areas in
Papua and 3 areas in
West Papua.

5. Impacts
SME’s online can’t do their business.
No public services
ATM can’t connect to server.
No news is a good news?
BUSINESS
SECTOR
JOURNALISM
PUBLIC
SERVICES
ECONOMY HEALTHCARE

6. Challenges
● Based on request (in)formal by other stakeholders. Internet slowdown is based on request
by police. Data blockade/shutdown is based on request by security sectors.
● Therefor no paperwork, no Government Order, no meeting reports regarding the decision to
throttle and disconnect the internet in Papua to be presented to the court.
● Government claim internet shutdown based on law: Article 40 ITE Law and Telco Law.
● Government claims over their success story to combat hoaxes in May 2019 overshading the
negative impact of internet shutdown for posing threat to human rights.
● PERMA “Supreme Court Regulation” No. 02 of 2019 has changed authority of the court to
adjudicate “Onrechtmatige Overheid Daad (civil law term) or “Tort by Government” (common
law term) cases from District Court to Administrative Court; This is the first case for
Indonesia.
● Time of trial happens during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

7. Journey to Justice
21/08/2019. 23/08/2019. 26/08/2019. 21/11/2019. 03/06/2020.
ONLINE PETITION
• Launch on
August 21, 2019
• 31,343
signatures
SOMATION LETTER
• Sent on August
23 & 26, 2019
• Objection letter
submit to MICT
on September 4,
2019
LAW SUIT
• Submit law suit
on 21 Nov 2019
• Registration
Number 230 / G
/ 2019 / PTUN-
JKT
• Court decision
on 3 June 2020

8. Plaintiff Petitum
1. To grant the Plaintiff's claim for the whole;
2. States the Government Actions undertaken by DEFENDANT I and
DEFENDANT II took the form of:
a) Throttling or slowing down of access / bandwidth in some regions of the Province West Papua and
Papua Province on August 19, 2019 since 13.00 until 20.30 Eastern Indonesian Time.
b) Blocking of data services and / or terminating internet access comprehensive in Papua Province (29
Cities / Regencies) and West Papua Province (13 Cities / Regencies) Dated August 21, 2019 until at
least on September 4, 2019 at 23:00 Eastern Indonesian Time.
c) Extend the blocking of data services and / or terminate internet access in 4 Cities / Regencies in
Papua Province (ie Jayapura City, Jayapura Regency, Mimika Regency, and Jayawijaya Regency) and 2
Cities / Regencies in West Papua Province (ie Manokwari City and Sorong City) since 4 September
2019 23.00 Eastern Indonesian Time until 9 September 2019 18.00 West Indonesia Time / 20.00
Eastern Indonesian Time;
is an Unlawful Act by a Government Agency and / or Official, the Acts of the DEFENDANTS a quo are
deemed to be defective in authority, procedure and substance;
3. Oblige the Defendants not to carry out a quo-like Government actions in the future;
4. Punish the Defendant to pay the costs incurred in this case.

9. Outcome
1. Grant the plaintiff’s claim
2. State the actions of the government carried out by DEFENDANT I and DEFENDANT II in the form of :
1) Throttling government action or the slowing down of access / bandwidth in several areas of West
Papua Province and Papua Province on August 19, 2019 from 13.00 Eastern Indonesian Time to 20.30
Eastern Indonesian Time
2) Government actions, namely blocking data services and / or terminating internet access completely
in Papua Province (29 cities / districts) and West Papua Province (13 cities / districts) dated August
21 until at least on September 4, 2019 at 23:00 Eastern Indonesian Time
3) Government actions namely extending the blocking of data services and / or terminating internet
access in 4 cities / districts in Papua Province (ie Jayapura City, Jayapura Regency, Mimika Regency,
and Jayawijaya Regency) and 2 cities / districts in West Papua Province (ie Manokwari City and
Sorong City) from September 4, 2019 at 23:00 Eastern Indonesian Time to September 9, 2019 at 18:00
Western Indonesia Time / 20:00 Eastern Indonesian Time
were an unlawful act by a government agency and / or official.
3. Punish Defendant I and Defendant II for paying jointly costs of Rp. 457,000

10. What Next
● It can happen not only in Jakarta and Papua. Maybe happen elsewhere in future, as long as there
is a (in)formal request and an extraordinary situation.
● No guarantees of written SOPs in near future.
● Combatting hoaxes with internet slowdown/shutdown become an instant solution to quell
unrest and suppress the spread of rumours and hoaxes.
● Encourage policy change to close opportunities to shutdown or throttling/bandwidth internet;
Judicial Review Art 40 UU ITE to the Constitutional Court or revise Art 40 UU ITE.

11. What was especially helpful?
● Support from Civil Society network
● News coverage from journalists/media
● Great expert witnesses who can explain the relation between internet shutdown and
violation of human rights
● Amicus Curiae from many organizations
● International pressure through online petition and statement
● International support for lawyers from MLDI, Accessnow
● This case was handled by the great judges (all-women panel). In “legal reasoning”, they
are using human rights argumentation to their consideration, such as ICCPR, Siracusa
Principle, Johannesburg Principles, etc.

12. Lesson Learned
● This court judgment can be a good ‘precedent’ for respecting rights to information,
both online or offline, especially in Indonesia.