Proposed amendments to Indonesia‘s Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law aim to protect children by criminalizing “cyberbullying,” but some activists and free-speech advocates warn that the new legislation could also be used to stifle legitimate dissent.

Since it was enacted in 2008, the government has used the ITE Law to harass and detain activists by charging the state‘s critics with defamation. In 2015, the Indonesian branch of the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SafeNet) documented 11 such online defamation cases against activists.