Indonesian government agencies’ purchase and deployment of highly invasive spyware from Israel-based surveillance companies – among others – must be investigated and halted, parliamentarians from Southeast Asia said today.
According to the briefing, between January 2019 and May 2022, Amnesty International recorded at least 90 cases of digital harassment and other forms of digital attacks by “unidentified parties” directed against civil society, resulting in at least 148 victims. Regional and Indonesian civil society organizations such as the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet), the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras), the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), Indonesia Corruption Watch, and the Legal Aid Institute for the Press (LBH Pers) – among others – have also repeatedly raised concerns about the increasing incidence of digital attacks against individuals and organizations that are critical of the government in recent years.
