Indonesians report restrictions on posts about forest fires — Mongabay
In Indonesia, social media users, civil society organizations and officials have reported the removal or restriction of posts about forest fires and haze continuing in the country. Some users suspect the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs, but Minister Meutya Hafid denied that the ministry had requested restrictions on information about the fires, Mongabay reports.
Removed publications and blocked accounts
On October 15, the Indonesian Nalar Rawat Institute posted videos on TikTok and Instagram about the health impacts of the fires. The video used NASA satellite imagery showing the spread of carbon monoxide over Indonesia and footage of orange skies in the city of Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan province.
The organization said that its TikTok video, which received 500,000 views and 17,500 likes, was removed for allegedly violating community guidelines. According to Nalar Rawat employee Fatus Sahara, the platform did not specify which rule had been violated, and the organization’s appeal was rejected. The following day, Nalar Rawat’s Instagram account was temporarily blocked, but access was restored after it contacted Meta with support from the digital rights organization SAFEnet.
Complaints about moderation
International Animal Rescue Indonesia said Instagram restricted its post about slow lorises leaving their habitat because of the fires. The publication was labeled as sensitive content, blurred and had its audio disabled. The organization’s digital education coordinator, Cahya Riza, said Meta did not explain the reason for the restriction.
More current news is available on the UA.News Telegram channel Telegram.
TikTok also removed on October 20 a video by Siak district head Afni Zulkifli about planting trees on a burned peatland site in Riau province. The video received 5 million views; following an appeal, it was restored the same day.
Muhamad Heychael, a researcher at the media-monitoring organization Remotivi, reported users’ complaints about covert reach restrictions and geoblocking of posts about the fires. Remotivi said it received 142 confirmed complaints about content moderation from January 1 to October 15: about 85% of them concerned moderation related to ministry requests. At the same time, no connection was established between specific cases of restrictions on posts about the fires and government requests.
Fires and the ministry’s position
According to Nusantara Atlas, as of September, about 1.92 million hectares of land, including forests, had burned in Indonesia — more than twice as much as in August. Haze also spread to neighboring countries, while the fires cause respiratory illnesses and deaths among local residents, including children, and wildlife.
On October 21, Meutya Hafid said her ministry had not carried out any content removals and had not sent platforms requests to restrict information about the fires. She called on users to appeal restrictions directly with the platforms and report them to the ministry. Meta and ByteDance did not respond to journalists’ requests before publication.
