Indonesian Netizens Warned of Participatory Propaganda Ahead of General Elections
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22 January 2024 11:14 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia has been recorded as the largest social media users in Southeast Asia. Senior lecturer at Monash University Indonesia Ika Idris warned Indonesian netizens to be wary of participatory propaganda. According to Ika, this approach focuses on audience participation instead of the top-down approach of propaganda.
"This strategy causes many content creators to accidentally become a fake news entrepreneur or be a part of a digital propaganda ecosystem," said Ika during a book discussion event for “Misguided Democracy in Malaysia and Indonesia: Digital Propaganda in Southeast Asia” on Friday in Jakarta.
In Indonesia, Ika mentioned, this strategy could be seen during the propaganda of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Social media generates high-engagement media such as memes, stickers, or stitches. People interact with the content without knowing of the disinformation they help distribute.
"From bringing up the issue due to the rate of the engagement to actively participate in digital propaganda ecosystem," said the co-director of Data & Democracy Research Hub.
Participatory propaganda is also often found during the general election campaign period. Politicians are working overtime to gain agents for their political propaganda as seen in the US general elections in 2016 with rampant dissemination of political polarization.
During the same event, CSIS political researcher Noory Okthariza said that Indonesia and Malaysia are the two biggest Muslim-majority countries with similar digital narration, such as Palestine and Israel, China, and Halal issues.
"During this political year, it is interesting to observe how the propaganda affects Gen Z outside of urban areas with lower-middle education groups," Oktha said.
One of the participants in the discussion, Nuurrianti from Oklahoma said that democracy has been manipulated by propagandists. "The democracy in Malaysia and Indonesia has been misguided, steered by the increasingly authoritarian government," she concluded.
KHUMAR MAHENDRA
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