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ndonesia confirmed on Tuesday that it would stand behind a UN resolution that promotes the right to a completely free and undisrupted internet for citizens despite its earlier effort to endorse an amendment to the resolution.

The UN’s Human Rights Council (HRC) passed on July 1 a resolution dubbed “The promotion, protection and enjoyment of human rights on the internet”, which condemns any efforts by governments to intentionally disrupt internet access of their citizens to limit freedom of speech.

The resolution, passed by consensus, however, was met with opposition from six countries, including Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, South Africa, China and Indonesia.

However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir noted that Indonesia’s position had been taken out of context, saying that the regulation passed through consensus instead of voting, meaning that Indonesia had not opposed it.

The spokesman explained that during the deliberation of the resolution at the UN, China had tried to push three amendments into the regulation but failed to garner majority support to do so.

Indonesia’s position at that time, he added, had been in support of a particular amendment from China that hinged on the right to privacy and the prevention of spreading ideas on racial superiority, hatred, discrimination and any other form of intolerance. It, however, finally accepted the resolution as a result of a consensus.

“Indonesia’s position to the resolution is to agree with it as a whole. We didn’t vote against it. Maybe some media outlets here took the situation out of context,” he said on Tuesday.

The resolution highlights that “the same rights that people have offline must also be protected online” in accordance with Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. It also underlines the global and open nature of the internet as “a driving force in accelerating progress toward development in its various forms”.

Despite it being passed by the UN, the resolution does not hold any particular legal strength for it to be enforced anywhere, and merely serves as a set of agreed guidelines that countries should follow in terms of regulating internet access.

Separately, Communication and Information Ministry spokesperson Ismail Cawidu said that while he did not know the basis of Indonesia’s stance on the resolution, he underlined that Indonesia had numerous laws that halted the spread of harmful material, such as pornography, through the internet.

In Indonesia’s case, government blocks on several sites, which implies the spread of pornographic material and hate speech, have been enforced over the years, as it tries to promote a “healthy internet” for its citizens.

However, media hosting websites such as Reddit and Vimeo have been banned from the network due to pornographic material being present on the site.

In terms of speech, there have been cases in recent years where simple rants or expressions have landed individuals in court or even in jail on the back of the controversial 2008 Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law, which includes a vague clause on defamation.