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Indonesia Wants To Criminalize Memes (dailydot.com)
While the United States has the First Amendment to justify the spread of memes that may ridicule political figures for example, the Indonesian government doesn't. In fact, it is looking to criminalize internet users for posting memes. The Daily Dot reports via Jakarta Post: Its Electronic Information and Transactions Law (ITE) punishes any electronic media communication that incites fear or embarrassment under its defamation article. The public has continuously called for the article's removal, but instead Indonesia is introducing more restrictions to freedom of expression. Posting memes, texts, pictures, or videos would be punishable if found to have a defamatory or slanderous tone. According to the Indonesian government, this provision stands to prevent and control cyberbullying. But it can further be used as a political tool against opposition during elections. Since its implementation in 2008, 200 people have been prosecuted according to data from the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network. Among the most notable cases, was the prosecution of Prita Mulyasari in 2009 for complaining about Omni International Hospital services on an online mailing list.
The majority (~87%) are Muslim. This is not a coincidence.
We're about to get this too. Can't let a feeling be hurt, can we?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It seems to be working just fine in China.
Censorship laws don't have to make sense or be applied consistently; they just have to give power to rulers looking to put enemies in jail.
It's just a more blunt version of what the American left is pushing under the guise of punishing "harassment" and "triggering" language. Exhibit A, the behavior of Twitter where constantly referencing a left wing user is considered punishable speech, but doxxing and threatening the "right" teenage girl with rape and murder will never land you in trouble.
And that's just social media. Students are getting expelled from universities left and right for simply expressing their opinions. Many of them, in the context of classroom discussions.
What Indonesia is doing is just a more open and raw version of that. They have no culture of freedom of speech. Our culture is collapsing because of all of the pedants and obnoxious creeps who feel the need to constantly interject "the first amendment does not protect you from private consequences" (thanks for the clarification poindexter). Because a culture of free speech cannot survive such minimalism. It is only a matter of time before people demand that the political and legal systems conform to the popular understanding and culture surrounding the limits of speech.
I'm so tired of hearing this bone-headed phrase repeated by people who haven't taken two seconds to think it through. 100% freedom would mean allowing arson, rape, murder and a thousand other behaviors that we currently ban. You want to go back to prehistoric caveman days? Because that's the only time when that sort of freedom existed.
In order for society to work, you have to recognize the rights of other people and their rights limit your freedom to do whatever you want. We accept lots of limitations on our freedom with the understanding that the other people around us accept those same limitations. The end result is what we call civilization.