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PIFA, Tekno – The Indonesian government plans to implement publishers’ rights regulations that will force digital platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay for content published by news companies.

President Joko Widodo (Jokowi) has expressly declared this policy to be the main priority of the government of the Republic of Indonesia.

The plan prompted a response from Facebook, one of the world’s largest digital platforms. Rafael Frankel, director of Public Policy Meta for the Southeast Asia region, revealed that if the publisher rights rules were implemented, Facebook would block news content on its platform.

The move comes after Canada introduced a similar policy requiring digital companies to pay for news content displayed on their platforms.

Rafael Frankel also explained that this policy will have a negative impact on Facebook users, as their access to news will be limited. Although Facebook is hesitant to take this step, they feel compelled to take action similar to what they have taken in Canada.

“We really don’t want to get to this phase,” Rafael said.

One of the main arguments expressed by Rafael is that the publisher’s rights policy is difficult to implement and achieve its objectives. He also revealed that news content only accounts for about 3% of Facebook’s total revenue.

Rafael Frankel pointed out that so far, Facebook has always engaged in dialogue with the government to help formulate appropriate regulations.

“We consistently provide information to the government regarding this regulation that this regulation is neither sustainable nor effective,” Rafael said, as quoted by CNBC.

Even though Facebook has a critical approach to rules on publishers’ rights, Rafael Frankel added that Meta (Facebook’s parent company) had asked the Indonesian State Secretariat to reconsider the regulatory plans. The goal is to reach a solution that benefits all parties, including businesses, users and governments. (announcement)