Strategic Digital Information Operations in Indonesia: Law-Backed Platform Governance and the Erosion of Deliberation

Indonesia’s Electronic Information and Transactions (EIT) Law and related platform rules function as Strategic Digital Information Operations (SDIOs) that reshape agenda-setting, democratic resilience, and social cohesion. A qualitative study of expert interviews and legal-media documents (2008–2021) shows that broad content offences, especially defamation under Article 27(3), combined with compressed 4/24-hour takedown deadlines shift heavy legal risk onto platforms. This encourages conservative, often automated moderation that narrows participation, chills speech on identity-laden issues, and erodes trust. While state agencies and private complainants most actively invoke the law, civil-society actors disproportionately bear the legal jeopardy. The analysis argues that contemporary restrictions on online expression arise less from substantive bans than from procedural mechanisms. It therefore proposes safeguards that target these procedures: clarifying offences, tiering takedown timelines, mandating independent appeals, and requiring state transparency, in order to realign platform governance with democratic voice, inclusion, and fairness.