Google and the Press Council Weigh In on Indonesia's Copyright Bill: News, Compensation and AI
Photo: Mike van Schoonderwalt / Pexels
Indonesia's Directorate General of Intellectual Property (DJKI) has heard two sharply different views on how the country's new Copyright Bill should treat news content and artificial intelligence. In a discussion reported by DJKI on 20 October 2026, Google and the Dewan Pers (Press Council) gave input on three provisions of the draft: Articles 29, 30 and 66.
What the articles cover
According to DJKI, the provisions under discussion deal with the economic rights in journalistic works, compensation for their use, and the use of works in connection with AI. The bill is an initiative of the House of Representatives (DPR). DJKI said it will collect the input and pass it to the DPR, and that public consultations are planned in three cities.
Google's position
Google, represented by Yos Kusuma, said it prefers business-to-business (B2B) arrangements with publishers rather than a mandatory scheme. DJKI's report says Google warned of a risk of double payment if use of news content has to go through a collective management organisation (LMK) while platforms also deal with publishers directly. Google also raised concerns about any obligation to pay for indexing and for showing short snippets in search results.
The press side
The Press Council's input focused on making sure journalistic work is recognised and that media companies are fairly compensated when their content is used, including by AI systems. The discussion reflects a familiar tension: publishers want a clear legal basis for payment, while platforms want flexibility and fear that basic search functions could become chargeable.
Where Indonesia fits
Indonesia already has a presidential regulation, Perpres 32/2024, signed on 20 February 2024 and in force since 20 August 2024, on the responsibility of digital platform companies to support quality journalism. The Copyright Bill would take the question into copyright law itself, and would add AI to the picture. How the final text handles training, snippets and collective management will decide whether the regime looks more like a negotiation framework or a statutory payment right.
Why it matters
For platforms, AI developers and Indonesian media, this is the stage where wording can still change. The draft is a DPR initiative, so the government's role is to gather views and feed them in, and the planned regional consultations are the next chance for stakeholders to be heard. Companies that use news content in Indonesia, whether in search, aggregation or model training, should follow how Articles 29, 30 and 66 develop.
Sources
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