Bali encourages tourists to report disturbances or crimes to the police rather than posting photos, videos, or messages about them on social media. Moreover, for travelers such actions on the island are now a violation of the law. The Bali Sun writes about this on January 10.
We are talking about changes made to the Information and Electronic Transactions Laws. During the New Year holidays, Indonesian President Joko Widodo wrote about them.
According to the innovations, from 2024 tourists cannot publish content on social networks that violates the “laws of decency” adopted in the country. This includes overly explicit photos, as well as any information in which one can find criticism of culture, religion, country politics, local communities, and even individuals. Thus, legal proceedings can be initiated against a tourist even if he writes on his page on social networks about any conflict with a resident, a waiter, a maid, or a seller in a souvenir shop. According to Article 27A introduced into the law, this amounts to a deliberate attack on the honor and good name of a resident.
As the authorities explained, if a violation by locals occurs, it must first be reported to the police. They gave an example: a week earlier, two tourists from the United States published a video on social networks in which a taxi driver held them in a car and extorted money from them. The video quickly went viral, and the situation itself made international news headlines. The driver was found and arrested, but police note that the injured tourists did not report the incident at all. At the same time, the authorities fear that the dissemination of such information on social networks will damage the reputation of Bali’s tourism sector.
We would like to add that the updated law does not indicate specific measures that will be applied to violators. The authorities also did not specify whether the tourists who suffered from the actions of the taxi driver had any problems with the law. However, travelers should still remember that they may face trial for such actions while on vacation in Indonesia.