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The use of internet and digital platforms in Indonesia has been growing massively, where information exchange between users is continuous and fast-paced, especially on user-generated content (UGC) platforms such as social media, digital marketplaces, knowledge sharing, and entertainment. This highlights the need for content moderation policy to monitor UGC on the internet and prevent the spread of harmful content. Ministry of Communications and Informatics (MOCI) Regulation No. 5/2020 attempts to regulate content moderation by establishing MOCI's authority to request that private electronic system organizers (ESOs) take down prohibited content within a restricted time period. While weak content moderation comes with a risk of harmful material, excessive content moderation may turn into excessive censorship that could violate individual freedom of expression. To address issues in MOCI Regulation No. 5/2020, this policy paper proposes several recommendations for Indonesia's content moderation policy.

This study introduces a comprehensive overview of literature concerning the concepts of regulation and governance, and attempts to connect them to scholarly works that deal with the governance of and by social media platforms. The paper provides fundamental definitions of regulation and governance, along with a critique of polycentricity or multi-stakeholderism, in order to contextualise the discussion around platform governance and, subsequently, online content regulation. Moreover, where traditional governance literature conceptualised stakeholders as a triangle, this article proposes going beyond the triad of public, private and non-governmental actors, to account for previously invisible stakeholder clusters, like citizens and news media organisations. This paper also contends that, while platform governance is an important field of study and practice, the way it has been structured and investigated so far, is posing an existential risk to the broader internet governance structure, primarily, because of the danger of conflating the internet with platforms. As a result, there exists a timely need to reimagine the way in which we understand and study phenomena related to platform governance by adjusting our conceptual and analytical heuristics. So, this article wishes to expand the theorisation of this field in order to better engage with complicated platform governance issues, like the development of regulatory frameworks concerning online content regulation.

Indonesia's digital economy is predicted to grow to reach USD124 billion in 2025 but this huge potential would only be realizable with the support of an adequate regulatory framework. The Center of Indonesia Policy Studies has conducted a series of research and advocacy to define the steps that could be taken to support the growth of the digital economy ecosystem in Indonesia. In this regard, CIPS made use of a handbook from the Center for International Private Enterprise (CIPE) to conduct its research and advocacy, focusing on four main aspects -- consumer protection, data protection, cybersecurity, and electronic transactions. This paper is a case study in the usage of this guidebook in the context of the Indonesian digital economy and also describes how CIPS carried out its research using the interview method and through the holding of Digital Week 2020.

This study introduces a comprehensive yet non-exhaustive overview of literature concerning the concepts of regulation and governance, and attempts to connect them to scholarly works that deal with social media platforms’ content regulation. The paper provides fundamental definitions of regulation and governance, along with a critique of polycentricity, in order to contextualise the discussion around platform governance and online content regulation. Regulation is framed here as a governance mechanism within a polycentric governance model where stakeholders have competing interests, even if sometimes they coincide. Moreover, where traditional governance literature conceptualised stakeholders as a triangle, this article proposes imagining them as overlapping circles of governance clusters with competing interests, going beyond the triad of public, private and non-governmental actors. Finally, the paper contends that that there exists a timely need to reimagine the way in which we understand and study phenomena appertaining to public discourse by adopting the platform governance perspective, which is framed as the advancement of internet governance. Finally, the article ascertains to study the governance of online content and social media platforms not as a sub-section of internet governance but as a conceptual evolution with existential stakes.

With more than two billion users worldwide, Facebook is often described in popular media as the ‘largest country in the world’, due to its nature, size and composition. However, Facebook is a company, regulated primarily as a business. The aim of this project is to raise and answer key questions about Facebook’s normative practices, and particularly about the site’s regulation. My argument is that, throughout its short history, Facebook’s users have regulated the site. User regulation is described as the practices of criticism, negotiation and rejection to which Facebook’s architecture, policies and practices are subjected by its users and non-users, and the subsequent impacts of such regulation on Facebook. User regulation of Facebook is an informal, arbitrary process that leads to Facebook’s continuously evolving norms and reflects the persistent struggle for control between Facebook and its users. A pluralistic, digital-cultures approach has been adopted in the theoretical and conceptual framework of this thesis, with an emphasis on the canons of media and communication, cultural studies and political economy. Multiple case studies of user regulation are presented to explain the dynamics of how users are regulating the architecture, policies and practices of the site, in order to demonstrate that users are regulating Facebook. The first part of the thesis begins with an exposition of the user regulation model, after which a framework for Facebook, its users and user regulation is presented. Subsequently, the methodology, the efficacy of the methodology and the case study approach are discussed. The second part of the thesis explores three interrelated themes – privacy, advertising and labour on Facebook – to explain and demonstrate my argument. These three themes are key to explaining the process and phenomenon of user regulation, as they constitute what I term the ‘circle of exploitation’ on Facebook. In the third part of the thesis, resolutions to this circle of exploitation are addressed by proposing certain alternatives, in order to examine the ability and vulnerability of users. Finally, the key outcomes of this project and my research agenda of providing a historical account for future research into the ontology and epistemology of Facebook are considered.