Constitutionalising the Right to Be Forgotten in Indonesia’s Digital Environment: Balancing Privacy, Expression, and Human Rights

Zaka Firma Aditya (Faculty of Law, Universitas Andalas, Indonesia and The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesia)
Elwi Danil (Faculty of Law, Universitas Andalas, Indonesia)
M. Guntur Hamzah (The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesia)
Pan Mohamad Faiz Kusuma W. (the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Indonesia, Indonesia)

Jurnal Ilmiah Hukum LEGALITY
Vol. 34 No. 2 (2026): September

This article examines the regulation of the Right to Be Forgotten in Indonesia, particularly emphasising the challenges of administrative law enforcement amid the digital technology era. As personal data can now be stored and disseminated indefinitely across digital platforms, this right emerges as a critical legal instrument for protecting privacy, reputation, and human dignity. This analysis explores Indonesia’s regulatory framework particularly personal data protection legislation and administrative mechanisms to assess how this right can be applied while preserving democratic values such as freedom of expression and public access to information. Employing a normative legal research methodology that combines statutory, conceptual, case-based, and comparative approaches, this study identifies normative gaps, enforcement challenges, and tensions between privacy rights and transparency obligations. The article concludes that the recognition of this right as a constitutional right is essential to ensure equal and effective protection. Its constitutional entrenchment would solidify legal certainty, provide explicit accountability mechanisms, and secure a proportional balance between privacy and freedom of expression. Consequently, this right may serve as a cornerstone for building a fair, inclusive, and constitutionally established digital ecosystem in Indonesia.