Minister:Govt Must Control Social Media Sites

VIVAnews – Indonesian Information and Communication Minister Tifatul Sembiring said that social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter have helped pioneering changes.

This change, said Tifatul, is not only from the aspect of information technology, but also social, economic and political aspects of a country. The former Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) president cited the political change in some countries including Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, Libya and even the turmoil in Malaysia as one of the effects of social media.

Tifatul was of the opinion that the change took place because the governments of those countries could not control cyber communication network. Thus, he did not want the Indonesian government to let go the supervision over the social media.

“The Indonesian government must be able to control, but not in the sense of limiting it,” said Tifatul on Thursday, July 15.

Tifatul said other effects of social media hype is the emergence of freedom and transparency. Now, he said, the president and the ministers have also often been criticized by the general public.

“Earlier the public criticized the government through conventional ways such as the House of Representatives. Now they can do it through social media sites,” said Tifatul.

He revealed that that currently there are 1.9 billion internet users in the world. In Indonesia alone, said Tifatul, internet users numbered 45 million. Thus, he said, real measures must be taken to prevent the negative effects of Internet.

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Translated by: Indah Lestari