REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs (Menkop UKM) Teten Masduki said there are indications that the TikTok platform has not yet complied with Minister of Trade Regulation Number 31 of 2023 (Permendag 31/2023) concerning the obligation to separate social media and e-commerce.

"Has TikTok complied with Permendag 31, was there any separation (e-commerce and social media separation-Ed)? We were discussing it with the Minister of Trade (Zulkifli Hasan). We see that there has been no change. There are indications of violations of the rules," Teten said during the 2023 Reflection and 2024 Outlook Discussion of the Ministry of Cooperatives and SMEs (Kemenkop UKM) in Jakarta, Thursday (Dec. 21, 2023).

Teten emphasized that the government was consistent in implementing Permendag 31, so that there are no monopolistic practices in the digital economic market. "The government has to be consistent for this. This was very fundamental so that there were no monopolistic practices in the digital market," he said.

Teten added that the Kemenkop UKM and the Kemendag have the same position regarding the separation of social media and e-commerce. In Permendag 31, there was no regulation regarding a transition period of three months or four months for e-commerce platforms.

"Why should we wait four months? There is no transition period in implementing Permendag 31, they have to be ready," he said.

Teten said that Permendag 31 also being needed to regulate algorithms because there was discrimination against local brands in e-commerce. He asked that e-commerce and social media platforms not blocked algorithm schemes so that there were fairness between local products and products from abroad.

On the same occasion, Special Staff to the Minister of Cooperatives and SMEs for Creative Economy Empowerment, Fiki Satari, said that the Kemenkop UKM had coordinated with the Kemendah and Kementerian Kominfo regarding alleged indications of violations committed by TikTok at the 12.12 Local Shopping event on 12 December.

"If we were talking about e-commerce platform, at the one that has permit was Tokopedia. We wait for TikTok's official statement," said Fiki.

Previously, Tokopedia's parent company, GoTo, announced Tokopedia and TikTok Shop Indonesia would be merged. TikTok would have control over Tokopedia.

The shopping service features in the TikTok application in Indonesia will be operated and managed by Tokopedia. TikTok also invested more than 1.5 billion US dollars as a long-term commitment to support Tokopedia's operations. This merger occurred after TikTok Shop operations were stopped in Indonesia on Wednesday (Oct. 4, 2023) following the issuance of Minister of Trade Regulation Number 31 of 2023 which prohibits platforms with a socio-commerce business model from facilitating payment transactions in their own electronic systems.

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