VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

VOINews, Jakarta - Trade Minister Zulkifli Hasan stated that the government, on Monday, will sign a regulation prohibiting social media platforms to facilitate social commerce.

Hasan explained that social media platforms are only allowed to promote goods or services though are prohibited from being the platform for trade transactions.

"Social (media platforms) can only facilitate the promotion of goods or services and cannot (facilitate) direct transaction and direct payments, (so) it can no longer be, it can only be promotional," he stated after a limited meeting chaired by the president at the Presidential Palace Complex here on Monday.

The minister remarked that like television, social or other digital media platforms can only be a place to promote products and not as platforms for transactions.

"As a digital platform, it should only serve as a platform for promotion," he stressed.

The new regulation to be signed on Monday afternoon is a revision to Ministerial Regulation No. 50 of 2020.

In the new regulation, Hasan said, the government strictly separates "social commerce" and "social media" platforms.

"They must be separated, so they will not master all of the algorithms, and this prevents the use of personal data for business purposes," he remarked.

The new regulation also stipulates the positive list of goods or goods that are allowed to be imported. He noted that one of the goods that cannot be imported, or on the negative list, is batik.

According to the minister, with the new regulation, imported goods must have the same requirements as domestic goods, such as halal certification for food products and permission from the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM) for skin care or beauty products.

"Electronic goods must have the standards, so (imported goods) are treated the same as domestic products," he stated.

The regulation also prohibits the sale of imported goods priced below US$100. (Antaranews)