Most Twitter Users Contrary to Electric Vehicle Subsidy: INDEF Study

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (INDEF) found that 80 percent of the public disagrees with the government’s electric vehicle subsidy, through a social media in-depth analysis, specifically Twitter. 

“We found that 80.77 percent of people on the internet disagree or rather criticize the electric vehicle subsidies policy,” said INDEF data analyst continuum Wahyu Tri Utomo.

The main argument against the issuance of the subsidy surrounds the fact that people on Twitter believe the demographic in the EV market is not people who actually need to be subsidized. INDEF argues that the prices of EVs in the Indonesian market are still quite expensive. 

“It can almost be certain that the middle-to-lower class will not purchase these cars or cannot afford to buy electric vehicles,” said Wahyu. “It just doesn’t feel right subsidizing the middle-upper class.”

The results of INDEF's analysis are sourced from 18,912 conversation data on Twitter from 15,139 accounts from May 8 to May 12. Twitter, as a social media platform, was chosen as it is considered representative for capturing people's aspirations, criticisms, or input, especially those related to social issues, politics, and government policies.

"After we retrieved the data, we try to clean it from media accounts or from buzzers, so we hope that the conversation will only be obtained from real users. After that, we will do an analysis for exposure, sentiment, and also topics of conversation," said Wahyu on the organization’s electric vehicle subsidy study.

DICKY KURNIAWAN | MOH KHORY ALFARIZI

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