KBGO in the 2024 Election Will Harm Women’s Participation

Online gender-based violence (KBGO) that occurred in the 2024 elections is considered to have harmed women’s participation in politics. Violence in the form of threats, the spread of private videos without consent, slander, misogynistic hate speech, and sexist comments make the digital space unsafe for women. As a result, the fighting space for women is becoming increasingly difficult.

“Because women experience bullying during the campaign, they become demotivated. “Nothing has been attacked yet, so those who previously wanted to be vocal are now thinking again about being able to voice their voices with the issues they want to bring up,” said Secretary General of the Indonesian Women’s Coalition (KPI), Mike Verawati, at the discussion “KBGO Findings in the 2024 Election” on Wednesday (19/6).

Safenet researcher Shinta Ressmy revealed that there was a case of a female candidate in East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) who failed to nominate due to the distribution of private videos at the nomination stage by irresponsible parties. The purpose of distributing the video was to attack the honor of female prospective candidates.

“The purpose of distributing the video is to attack a woman’s honor so that she fails to run for office,” said Shinta in the same discussion.

Another case was revealed by Kalyanamitra Foundation researcher Dila. On the billboard for one of the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) legislative candidates, the female candidate used the campaign tagline Semok, which stands for Ready to Lead Depok. On the candidate’s social media, many sexist comments were made against the candidate.

“It was on social media; there were comments that all mothers were healthy and plump. “That’s actually an inappropriate comment; it actually includes KBGO,” said Dila in the same discussion.

Apart from having an impact on narrowing the participation space for women, KBGO also makes it increasingly difficult for women to be elected. Slander against female candidates spread online influences voters’ opinions. In fact, female legislative candidates use social media for online campaigns, which are cheaper than face-to-face campaigns.

“When they face character assassination through KBGO, this affects their voting problems. What is usually found is bringing up the past or slander. There has been a change in perception towards female legislative candidates. “Oh, it turns out he has a dark past, even though it was actually slander, but it had already spread,” explained Mike.

KBGO is also experienced by female journalists who cover elections and politics. Female journalists experience twice the vulnerability of male journalists when making reports that offend certain parties. Women journalists often experience attacks of verbal harassment, physical insults or body shaming, and threats of sharing personal data or doxing.

“For female journalists, in the context of elections and politics, this occurs when journalists make sensitive news, for example, offending certain parties.” From AJI (Indonesian Journalists Alliance) records in 2023, it shows that 26.8 percent of female journalists have experienced online violence,” said Konde.co journalist Salsabila Putri in the same discussion. []