T

he government says it will intensify its crackdown on websites accused of spreading hatred based on issues of ethnicity, religion and race (SARA) after receiving more requests to do so, raising the specter of online censorship.

The move came as religious sentiments over the upcoming Jakarta gubernatorial election escalated and spread online, mainly after Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama was accused of disrespecting Al-Maidah 51, a verse in the Quran.

The Communications and Information Ministry claimed that since Oct. 31 it had received more requests to block websites allegedly spreading SARA-based hatred from several authorities, including the National Police, the National Counterterrorism Agency (BNPT) and the State Intelligence Agency (BIN)

At least 38 websites accused of provoking SARA-based hatred alone were reported to the ministry and among 16 of them had been shut down, including 11 websites recently blocked on Wednesday, acting ministry spokesperson Noor Iza told The Jakarta Post on Friday.

“In late October, the intensity [of reports on such websites] has increased [more than in previous months]. Before, such provocative issues were mostly reported for their circulation in social media, not on websites,” Noor said.

He argued that as long as sites that circulated such hateful campaigns kept growing, the ministry had to act to curb such rampant hate speech on the internet.

Authorities claim the crackdown has been carried out in accordance with the law.

The National Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) special economic crimes director, Brig. Gen. Agung Setya, said the force utilized regulations stipulated under the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law and related laws to assess websites’ content.

“If a sentence contains “occupy the House of Representatives’ complex” [on a website], it is already provocative. [But] it will be further verified by a language expert and criminal expert before we declare it provocative,” Agung said.

Article 40 of the ITE Law stipulates that the government can block access to electronic documents suspected of disseminating, among other things, information related to pornography, terrorism and defamation.

Insp. Gen. Arif Dharmawan, the BNPT deputy of enforcement, said the force reported such websites to the ministry after receiving suggestions from netizens of several websites they considered provocative, especially those related to radicalism and terrorism.

But human rights and press groups said what the government did in blocking 11 websites recently was arbitrary and could be construed as censorship.

The government, they said, should not have closed down the websites without first initiating a legal investigation into the websites’ operator it accused of spreading hatred.

“Hate speech that leads to violence should be [shut down] to prevent it from inciting people, but it should be done through a fair and correct legal mechanism such as a court order,” said Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers) executive director Nawawi Bahrudin.

The Institute for Criminal Justice Reform (ICJR) said Article 40 of the new ITE law had legalized the government’s online censorship regime.

“Article 40 of the revised ITE law, in the ICJR’s view, all this time, has been institutionalizing the incorrect mechanism to block [websites] that has been carried out by the government,” ICJR researcher Anggara said.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every person has a right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Meanwhile, LBH Pers said before blocking websites with news-element content, the ministry should have first coordinated with the Press Council as Law No. 4/1999 on the press stated that the council had the right to evaluate whether news or the media were under the protection of the law.

“If it is revealed that media sites that have been blocked are [protected] under the Press Law, the ministry has actually undertaken [illegal] censorship,” LBH Pers said.

The ministry announced on Thursday that it had shut down 11 sites, namely lemahirengmedia.com, portalpiyungan.com, suara-islam.com, smstauhiid.com, beritaislam24h.com, bersatupos.com, pos-metro.com, jurnalmuslim.com, media-nkri.net, lontaranews.com, and nusanews.com.