Facial scanning could become part of Indonesia’s social media verification framework, according to new remarks from the Ministry of Communication and Digital Affairs. Officials say the measure is under study as a way to curb anonymous abuse, misinformation, and deepfakes by tying accounts to verified identities. The proposal is emerging alongside new rules on online child protection and content labeling for AI-generated material, which the ministry has also advanced this month.
Tempo reports that the ministry is examining facial scanning as one technical option for verifying the real person behind an account, with the aim of limiting the spread of harmful content from anonymous profiles. At the same time, the ministry has reiterated its expectation that major platforms maintain a local presence and comply with domestic rules, including obligations to cooperate on safety features and deploy tools to detect AI-generated content.
Any move to introduce biometric verification would need to comply with Indonesia’s Personal Data Protection Law No. 27/2022, which treats biometric identifiers as sensitive personal data and requires a clear legal basis, purpose limitation, and security safeguards. Compliance would also be shaped by the Constitutional Court’s July ruling that expanded Data Protection Officer requirements for organizations handling Indonesian users’ information.
Indonesia already has experience integrating facial verification into government programs. The INA Pass digital identity system relies on selfie biometrics and liveness checks for registration, while pilots in the health sector have used facial verification to authenticate patients at clinics. These deployments provide technical precedent, but applying similar checks to social media accounts raises additional concerns over proportionality, consent, retention, and safeguards against misuse. The question of whether verification would be mandatory or presented as one of several available methods remains unresolved.
The government has been moving in parallel on related policy tracks. Officials have confirmed plans to introduce a minimum social media age, with interim child-protection guidelines expected ahead of new legislation. Age-assurance proposals in other jurisdictions have often incorporated selfie or facial analysis, which further intersects with the current discussions about account verification. Broader developments in Indonesia’s digital identity landscape, including biometric e-SIM registration linking national ID numbers to face data and regulatory scrutiny of projects such as Worldcoin’s World ID, also illustrate the growing importance of privacy and compliance debates around biometric technologies.
The ministry has not announced a formal consultation timeline, but future clarity is expected on data-handling standards for selfie templates, platform liability for misidentification, and how the proposal would align with the Personal Data Protection Law’s requirements on consent and purpose limitation. The outcome will determine how far biometric checks might extend into Indonesia’s digital governance framework.
Sources: Tempo, ANTARA, Reuters
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By Cass Kennedy
