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mid growing criticism from rights activists, the government has softened its stance and announced that internet content generated by press institutions is not among the information that should be deleted under the controversial right to be forgotten provision guaranteed by the revised Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law.

The Communications and Information Ministry said that both the government and the House of Representatives, when deliberating the law in October, had agreed that the right to be forgotten, as stipulated under Article 26 of the ITE law, could only order the ministry to delete non-press information on the internet at the request of a plaintiff.

Immediately after the bill was passed into law in October, rights activists feared that the new provision in the draconian law, which has seen the jailing of dozens of internet users, would give the green light for graft convicts or former graft convicts who have served their time to have all news about their cases deleted from the internet.

The ministry dismissed the concerns.

Henry Subiakto, an expert at the ministry in charge on the implementation of the ITE Law, said the right to be forgotten excluded the press since it had its own law.

The communications professor from Surabaya-based Airlangga University further said the right to be forgotten could only remove information posted on other internet spheres such as fake news websites, social media and blogs, which were shown by plaintiffs to be inaccurate or untrue.

“The press should not worry because it has its own law and the ITE Law will not intervene on information related to the press. We will not suppress press freedom,” Henry told The Jakarta Post on Monday, adding details on the mechanism of the right to be forgotten would come in a ministerial regulation.

Henry said that any citizen who found inaccurate or misleading information posted on the internet about themselves could file their case with a court based on the law’s provision.

If the plea is approved, the court will order the ministry to ask internet service providers such as Google and Yahoo to delete the respective information from the internet, but only information posted by non-press institutions.

Henry said that the right to be forgotten had been inserted in the revision of the ITE Law at the request of House Commission I overseeing information and technology, adding that Indonesia was the first country in Asia to draft legislation on the right to be forgotten.

“The idea of the right to be forgotten emerged during a consultation with the House. We saw countries in Europe such as Spain, France and England had applied it, and we are now the first country in Asia to follow the move,” Henry said.

While the ministry claimed that everyone had the right to file for the right to be forgotten in court, House Commission I said that the provision should not open for all cases, but only for those related to ITE Law violations.

Commission I chairman TB Hasanuddin said that plaintiffs availing of the right to be forgotten could not order the ministry to delete information with regard to other cases outside of the ITE offenses such as corruption and pornography. “Information cannot be deleted without a court order,” Hasanuddin said.

Hasanuddin said the right to be forgotten allows citizens to delete all false information and information that besmirches them on the internet, including for example false accusations of rape, adultery, theft or corruption.

In order to be able to apply for the provision, the citizen must go through two separate legal processes, he added.

A citizen must prove the information falls within the remit of the ITE Law and then apply for the right to have the information deleted.

Should the court approve the request to be forgotten, then the court will issue a ruling to order the government to delete the information from the internet.

The ministry will later inform service providers to get rid of all information proven to be baseless by the court.