[Press Release] Politik Digital: Fenomena Buzzer dalam Media Sosial | Difussion #86

28 February 2023 – Ahead of the 2024 Election, Indonesia will be busy with various activities from candidates campaigning for themselves to get votes in the next election. Instead of using the right way to support, they instead use the buzzer as a service to campaign for themselves on social media. Seeing this, the Center for Digital Society gave its response through #Diffusion 86 “Digital Politics: Buzzer Phenomena in Social Media”, to convey the role of the government and the contribution that must be made by the people of Indonesia as the holder of the greatest power in fighting buzzers. Zakiah Fadhila (Research Assistant CfDS) and M. Irfan Dwi Putra (Research Assistant CfDS) were the speakers at this Difussion #86. This discussion was moderated by M. Hafiz Ziqrirahman, CfDS Community Outreach can be accessed via the link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vAHNAQfrHU 

Buzzer in the Political World

Opening the discussion, M. Irfan Dwi Putra explained about the buzzer, which is the person who distributes campaign information via social media. The campaigns carried out by these buzzers are divided into three, namely positive campaigns that prioritize the achievements of the candidates being supported, negative campaigns that highlight the weaknesses of opponents, and black campaigns that share hoaxes about their opponents.

The existence of this mushrooming buzzer makes it difficult for policymakers to track it. Moreover, with the power they have, buzzers can easily spread false information. Therefore, a multiforum approach is needed that is useful in fighting disinformation, such as the involvement of the government, CSOs and NGOs, social media, and the most important aspect, namely netizens. “We have the power to prevent and spread the spread of disinformation, so a program is needed to improve digital literacy skills, especially ahead of the upcoming election,” said Irfan.

Problematika Pemilu di Indonesia

The bad influence that the buzzer brought turned out to make KOMINFO work together with POLRI to make cyber patrols via cyber drones able to read numeric and alphabetic characters to detect hoaxes. It is hoped that this will make the 2024 Election orderly so as not to repeat the mistakes that occurred in the past 2019 Election. In that year, with the spread of disinformation through social media, the government took a policy to turn off the internet. However, it turns out that this policy violates the applicable regulations.

In 2019, the problem of disinformation should have been resolved by the domestic government without internet blackouts. If the blackout is necessarily needed, the government must provide clarification to the community. Therefore, to create an orderly 2024 election, the government should have had indicators of information or hoaxes, measurable task force authority, and produce more factual news. “To create an orderly 2024 election, the government must have indicators of information or hoaxes, measurable task force authority, and produce more factual news,” said Zakiah closing the discussion.

Author: Alfasya Sholatar