Disinformation Order and Social Media Algorithmic Trap: New Challenges for Sustainability of the Indonesia’s United Nation-State Narrative and Liberal Democratic Norms

Abstract

The Internet and social media have been increasingly adopted by political entities across the globe. The consequences of such adaptations on the Indonesia’s nation-state narrative and liberal democratic norms have been under-researched however. This article argues that in democratic countries, such adaptations are likely to pave the way for the emergences of disinformation order and social media algorithmic trap. Within the specific context of Indonesia’s democracy, these disinformation order and social media algorithmic trap are likely to polarize political spheres and jeopardize not merely Indonesia’s united nation-state narrative, but also Indonesia’s liberal democratic norms that evolved since the post-reform era. To evaluate such propositions, this article adopts a desk study and selects Jakarta’s 2017 Gubernatorial Election as a study case. Learning from these desk study and study case, this article proposes the following arguments. To manage the consequences of disinformation order and social media algorithmic trap on politics and democracy, we need formulate new political communication and policy research agenda based on the following dictum: who get lost by what/whom in which channel/medium and with what effects. Taking such effort may give us an opportunity to keep the current Indonesia’s united nation-state narrative prevailing and liberal democratic norms flourishing.

Pengaruh Sumber Informasi dan Interaksi Sosial di Media Sosial terhadap Pembentukan Opini Politik Masyarakat di Indonesia

“…Selain itu, munculnya politik identitas dalam pemilu di Indonesia semakin memperumit persinggungan antara politik dan identitas, yang berdampak pada multikulturalisme dan perpecahan masyarakat [3]. Oleh karena itu, memahami peran media sosial dan politik identitas dalam membentuk opini politik sangat penting untuk mempertahankan identitas budaya Indonesia dan memperkuat nasionalisme di era Revolusi Industri 4.0 (Ahmad, 2022;Sukmadi, 2022).…”

“…Demokrasi Indonesia yang dinamis sedang ditransformasikan oleh revolusi digital, yang memiliki implikasi signifikan untuk memahami bagaimana informasi dan interaksi sosial di media sosial membentuk opini politik publik (Asa et al, 2023). Kemunculan platform media sosial telah memberikan jalan baru bagi entitas politik untuk terlibat dengan publik (Ahmad, 2022). Namun, adaptasi terhadap media sosial ini juga menyebabkan penyebaran disinformasi dan penciptaan jebakan algoritmik media sosial, yang dapat memolarisasi ranah politik dan merusak norma-norma demokrasi (Ramadhan et al, 2022).…”