TL;DR
Meta and TikTok joined Google at a November 11 parliamentary hearing to challenge parts of Indonesia’s proposed copyright law revision. The draft addresses payments for news content and copyright rules for AI, but its current text is not publicly available and no vote date has been announced.
Meta and TikTok joined Google in challenging parts of Indonesia’s proposed copyright law revision at a parliamentary hearing in Jakarta on November 11. The bill would set rules for how platforms handle news and how copyrighted works may be used in AI development, but it remains under discussion and is not law.
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Parliament’s Legislation Body, known as Baleg, heard from Google, Meta, TikTok, the Press Council and Satu Lisensi Indonesia, according to Kompas. The proposal revises Copyright Law No. 28 of 2014. Parliament approved it as an initiative on March 12, 2026, and Baleg is now deliberating it with the government.
The companies raised different concerns. Google objected to payments tied to news links and snippets, a single collective licensing body and mandatory licensing for AI training data, according to reports by Suara and Kompas. It also called for intermediary protections, commonly referred to as safe harbor, to remain in the law. Google proposed a text and data mining exception with an opt-out, such as through robots.txt, Suara reported.
Meta argued that sharing a link is not the same as republishing an article and said payment duties could reduce traffic and revenue for publishers. TikTok said AI disclosure requirements should not apply when AI only assists a person’s work, and also called for safe-harbor protection, according to the source material. The companies’ positions are arguments made during deliberations; they do not establish how the final bill will be written.
How News and AI Could Be Affected
The proposal could change how platforms distribute Indonesian reporting and how publishers are compensated when their work appears in search results or other services. Under the July draft described by Reuters, payments would cover aggregating, republishing or displaying news previews, with funds routed through state-supervised collective management organisations to publishers. Google warned lawmakers that a levy on links could lead it to stop crawling, indexing and distributing Indonesian news, Reuters reported. That is the company’s stated position, not a confirmed outcome.
The AI provisions could also affect creators, rights holders and developers. Rules on training data, disclosure and human involvement in AI-assisted work may shape what developers can use and what creators can protect. The proposal’s reach could extend beyond journalism: the July draft covered areas including photography, film, video games and computer programs. The scope and wording may change as parliament and the government review the bill.
Publishers and platforms describe the potential effects differently. The Press Council told lawmakers that platforms take 80 percent of digital advertising and that traffic from platforms to news sites has fallen by up to 70 percent, according to the source material. Those figures were presented by the council; the material does not give their measurement period or comparison basis. The figures therefore do not establish a specific trend over a stated time window.
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From July Draft to November Hearing
Reuters reported the draft’s AI provisions on July 17, citing a bill text it had reviewed. Law ministry intellectual-property official Hermansyah Siregar confirmed that draft was authentic and said it would provide Indonesia’s first explicit recognition of AI in copyright law. He also said the text was not final. The July version would bar AI from imitating a creator’s distinctive style, require disclosure of AI use, and protect AI-assisted works only when they meet a human-involvement threshold. It did not specify how much human involvement would qualify.
That draft also proposed placing the use of copyrighted works for AI training under fair-use provisions or licensing agreements. It described payments for some platform uses of news and for using news in AI training, along with possible sanctions for noncompliance, including revoking local business permits. These are details reported about the July version, not verified provisions of the text discussed in November.
The proposal follows Presidential Regulation No. 32 of 2024, which requires digital platforms to support quality journalism. At the hearing, Press Council deputy chair Totok Suryanto said the regulation had not worked as intended and that platform compliance was low, according to Aktual. The council’s view adds to the policy dispute over whether existing arrangements adequately support publishers.
“A levy on links would leave Google with “no choice” but to stop crawling, indexing and distributing Indonesian news.”
— Google representative Agung Pamungkas, as reported by Reuters
The Current Draft Is Unclear
The full text being considered on November 11 was not available in the source material. Reports cite different versions, and Google referred at the hearing to Articles 29 and 30 as requiring payment for indexing, aggregation, curation and news snippets, according to Suara. Because the current wording could not be checked, those article numbers and provisions should be treated as provisional.
It is also unclear how the bill would define qualifying AI assistance, measure human involvement, handle opt-outs from training, or calculate payments for links and previews. No announced vote date was found in the source material. The July draft may help explain the debate, but its provisions cannot be assumed to have survived unchanged.
Deliberations Continue in Parliament
Baleg and the government are continuing deliberations, with no vote date announced in the source material. Further hearings or revisions could clarify the bill’s treatment of links, collective licensing, AI training and platform liability. The next concrete milestone will be a public release or reporting on the text under discussion, followed by any scheduled parliamentary action.
Until then, the November hearing records the companies’ objections and the Press Council’s arguments, but it does not settle the bill’s provisions. Whether lawmakers retain, revise or remove the disputed measures remains open.
Key Questions
Has Indonesia passed the copyright bill?
No. Parliament and the government are still deliberating the proposed revision. The source material reports no vote date.
What are Meta and TikTok objecting to?
Meta argued that sharing links is not republication and said payment obligations could reduce publishers’ traffic and revenue. TikTok said disclosure rules should not cover cases where AI only assists a person’s work. The source material also says TikTok supported keeping safe-harbor protections.
What did Google say about news links?
Google warned that payment requirements for links and news previews could affect access to Indonesian reporting. Its representative told lawmakers Google could stop crawling, indexing and distributing local news if a levy were imposed, Reuters reported.
What AI rules appeared in the July draft?
The version Reuters reported in July proposed rules on AI imitation of a creator’s distinctive style, disclosure of AI use, human involvement in AI-assisted works, and licensing or fair use for copyrighted training material. The text was described as unfinished and may differ from the version now under discussion.
Source: Thorsten Meyer AI
