JAKARTA: Minister of Communication and Information (Menkominfo) Budi Arie Setiadi detailed his plans to immediately hold a meeting with TikTok representatives in Indonesia, with one of the main focuses being to thoroughly discuss data security issues.
“We will discuss the data security aspect, what actually happened. There are many suspicions regarding this, but we have to study it more deeply first,” the 54-year-old minister said Thursday (14 March) to the Antara news agency.
Budi Arie explained that the meeting would not only discuss data security issues, but would also cover various developments related to digital platforms in Indonesia.
“We will discuss plans to block TikTok services in the United States, as well as discuss further the development of TikTok in Indonesia,” he added.
Recently, the United States House of Representatives (DPR) has passed a bill that has the potential to prohibit TikTok’s operations in the superpower country, unless TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, sells its shares.
This bill will be sent to the Senate for further discussion.
If this rule is implemented, ByteDance will be required to sell TikTok within six months or the social media platform will be blocked in the US.
National security issues have been one of the main reasons behind the crackdown on TikTok in the US, due to concerns that the platform could endanger the country’s security by remaining under ByteDance’s control.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew criticized the regulations “will take billions of dollars out of the pockets of creators and small businesses and endanger 300,000 American jobs.”
In Indonesia, TikTok has a significant market share, with the number of users reaching 113 million in 2023. This makes Indonesia the second largest TikTok user base in the world after the US
