June 4, 2026
World
World
SYDNEY, June 4 — Tech giant Meta has criticised Australia’s “grossly unfair” proposal to require social media companies to pay for news content, saying it strongly opposes the draft legislation.
JAKARTA, May 27 — Indonesia is set to require all accommodation providers listed on online travel agent (OTA) platforms to have valid business licences by June 2027, as part of a new digital verification system aimed at strengthening oversight of the tourism sector.
Tourism Minister Widiyanti Putri Wardhana said the system is being developed using the country’s existing Online Single Submission (OSS) platform to automatically verify whether accommodations such as hotels, villas, homestays and short-term rentals are properly licensed when listed on OTA platforms.
“Our policy direction is clear. We aim to foster a fair and competitive tourism industry to support sustainable tourism growth,” she said in a statement on Wednesday.
Widiyanti said the mechanism will use an Application Programming Interface (API) integrated between OTA platforms and the OSS system to verify accommodation business data in real time.
She added that the ministry has already identified several unlicensed operators and will forward the list to OTA platforms for further action.
Under the proposed system, OTA operators will be required to suspend or remove non-compliant listings within two months of receiving official notification.
She said the initiative is designed to improve governance in Indonesia’s digital tourism sector, protect travellers, ensure fair competition, and encourage operators to formalise their businesses. — Bernama
