D E C E M B E R 2 0 1 9 MEDIA INFLUENCE MATRIX: INDONESIA Technology, Public Sphere and Journalism Authors: Nurma Fitrianingrum, Lisette Reuvers Editor: Marius Dragomir Published by CEU's Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS), Budapest, 2019 About CMDS About the Authors The Center for Media, Data and Society Nurma Fitrianingrum has recently graduated from the (CMDS) is a research center for the study School of Public Policy at Central European University of media, communication, and where she obtained a Master's degree in Public Policy information policy and its impact on focusing on Media and Communication. She now works society and practice. Founded in 2004 as as Junior Policy Analyst at the Department of Public the Center for Media and Policy and Management, Universitas Gadjah Mada in Communication Studies, CMDS is part Indonesia. Prior to her studies at CEU, she had also worked as a researcher at the think tank Institute for of Central European University's (CEU) Research and Empowerment in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. School of Public Policy and serves as a Her areas of interest are public policy formulation and focal point for an international network social media, particularly related to social media of acclaimed scholars, research governance amidst disinformation campaigns. institutions and activists. Lisette Reuvers is a student of Global Public Policy (MUNDUS MAPP) at Institut Barcelona d'Estudis Internacionals (IBEI) and previously at Central CMDS ADVISORY BOARD European University. Her academic background is in social sciences, with a focus on inequality issues in the Clara-Luz Alvarez Netherlands and beyond. In her professional life she Floriana Fossato has worked on projects surrounding issues of youth, Ellen Hume education and inequality in the Netherlands. She is Monroe Price also interested in journalism and aims to become an Anya Schiffrin investigative journalist at some point in her life. Stefaan G. Verhulst Marius Dragomir is the Director of the Center for Media, Data and Society. He previously worked for the Open Society Foundations (OSF) for over a decade. Since 2007, he has managed the research and policy portfolio of the Program on Independent Journalism (PIJ), formerly the Network Media Program (NMP), in London. He has also been one of the main editors for PIJ's flagship research and advocacy project, Mapping Digital Media, which covered 56 countries worldwide, and he was the main writer and editor of OSF’s Television Across Europe, a comparative study of broadcast policies in 20 European countries. Hungary, 1051 Budapest, Nador st. 9. Tel: +36 1 327 3000 / 2609 Fax: +36 1 235 6168 Cover photo: Muhammad Raufan Yusup on Unsplash E-mail: [email protected] ABOUT THE MEDIA INFLUENCE MATRIX The Media Influence Matrix Project is run collaboratively by the Media & Power Research Consortium, which consists of local as well as regional and international organizations. The consortium members are academic institutions (universities and research centers), NGOs, journalism networks and private foundations. MEDIA INFLUENCE MATRIX ADVISORY BOARD Special Advisor: Dean Starkman Media Management and Economics: Philip M. Napoli Research and methodology: Amy Brouillette Research and advocacy: Susan Abbott, Minna Aslama Civil Society & Technology: Kate Coyer Policy: Francesca Fanucci Data: Attila Batorfy, Jessie Labov CMDS TEAM Director: Marius Dragomir Editorial consultant: Tom Popper Research: Eva Bognar, Roni Dorot, Dumitrita Holdis Design and outreach: Robert Nemeth Coordinator: Mihaela Groza M E D I A I N F L U E N C E M A T R I X : I N D O N E S I A T E C H N O L O G Y , P U B L I C S P H E R E A N D J O U R N A L I S M TECHNOLOGY, PUBLIC SPHERE AND JOURNALISM S T Technology Overview 5 Role of Technology in Media and Journalism 10 N Overview and Profiles of Key Players 10 E Company Profiles 10 T Internet and Mobile 10 N Telecommunications 12 Technology Companies and Government 14 O Technology Companies & Journalism 16 C The Rise of Misinformation 16 Media Content Distribution 17 F Financing 20 O E L B A T 4 TECHNOLOGY, PUBLIC SPHERE AND JOURNALISM With its more than 400 million cellular Indonesia is also a big embracer of social subscriptions, Indonesia is one of the largest media. Facebook is leading with 68% of the mobile markets of the world, the result of a social media market followed by YouTube with decade of spectacular rise of communication 14%. The popularity of social media has technologies. prompted several major players to build a local presence in Indonesia. Facebook, whose The country has today a mobile penetration of Indonesian market of 130 million is the fourth 165% as many Indonesians, tempted with ever largest in the world, Google, whose search cheaper deals, use more than one mobile card. engine beats all its competitors by leaps and Between 2010 and 2017, the number of internet bounds, and Twitter, whose Indonesian market users in Indonesia increased more than is said to generate a fifth of the company’s threefold to some 85 million. In contrast, old revenue in Asia, all operate local offices in technologies are a thing of the past. Less than Jakarta. 4% of people in Indonesia use a landline today. The rise of social media played a major role in But in spite of this rapid spread of transforming Indonesia’s media and technologies, there is still massive potential for journalism. As the largest distribution channel growth in the country’s communication of news content, social media made most of technology area. Only 32% of the population the country’s media outlets and journalists used the internet in 2017. Moreover, disparities dependent on their audiences. But at the same are widening. Internet users live in only 57% of time, social media platforms, particularly Indonesia’s households as Indonesia’s Facebook, became the largest platform for a geography (a country of 17,000 islands spread spate of misinformation websites that have across the Pacific) is an obstacle to connectivity. proliferated in Indonesia in recent years. In Java, Bali and parts of Sumatra enjoy good February 2018, Indonesia had 43,803 online internet connection, but many isolated islands news media. However, most of them are not suffer. Moreover, in spite of the overall high credible sources of information. The social mobile penetration, only some 60% of media culture, which rewards clicks over Indonesia’s households have access to a mobile quality, has also led to a marked decline in the phone. Add to that a generally low internet quality of news content. speed and you have an extremely unequal society with pockets of people enjoying better All these trends have prompted the access and others, poorly connected, struggling government to take a stance. An Artificial with isolation. Intelligence (AI) machine known as Cyber Drone 9 has been deployed by the authorities As elsewhere, technological development in to monitor, check, suspend and block what it Indonesia is much influenced by the country’s deems to be “negative content” online, economic health. Although Indonesia’s including fake news. That was made possible economy has constantly grown in the past by a regulation adopted in 2014 by the decade and poverty headcount dived to a low- Ministry of Communication and Informatics, record level in recent years, Indonesians can which introduced rules on internet content only afford technologies at the cheapest end of moderation aimed at wiping out “negative the market. As a result, Android dominates the content” online. operating system market. Apple comes second with only 4% of that market. Android-powered That is becoming controversial as authorities mobile phones are also dominant, accounting are increasingly using the fake news problem for 90% of the market, with Asian brands to police the internet space with the full having a big share of it: the Korean-owned participation and support of technology giants. Samsung and China’s Xiaomi jointly control At the request of the government, social media nearly half of the mobile gadget market. such as Facebook and Twitter are on the hunt 5 TECHNOLOGY, PUBLIC SPHERE AND JOURNALISM for fake news on their portals, diligently live streaming technology owned by removing pages and accounts suspected of Singapore’s BIGO Technology were all blocked spreading false information. Internet service for failing to “filter pornography content,” providers are also involved, blocking, at the authorities claimed. government’s request, websites that do not comply with regulations. All these developments only show that the internet space will continue to shrink, affecting Another regulatory measure, a temporary news media distribution and, in the end, provision introduced in 2016 by the citizens. Threatened by higher tax inspections communications ministry, has been used since and the possibility to have their platforms then to block apps and other internet services. blocked, technology giants are unlikely to Tik Tok, an Android app run by China’s confront authorities. Indonesia is a key Asian ByteDance, Tumblr, a microblogging site of market, which none of them can't afford to the U.S.-owned Verizon Media, Bigo Live, a lose. TECHNOLOGY OVERVIEW The number of fixed-line connections in Indonesia has been plummeting in recent years. Fixed- line penetration in the country has never been staggeringly high, but it lost over 29 million subscribers between 2010 and 2017, leaving only 4% of Indonesians with a landline in their homes. The number of mobile telephony subscriptions, on the other hand, has more than doubled in the same period, from 200 million to over 400 million subscriptions. According to data from the local statistical office in Indonesia, based on household surveys, almost 60% of Indonesians use a mobile today.