Rumah Pemilu Indonesia Election Portal
Ahead of the 2024 Simultaneous Regional Head Elections (Pilkada), election information disruption is predicted to increase again. Unlike the presidential elections, information disruption in the regional elections is unique to each region. The Indonesian Antifitnah Society (Mafindo) noted that from 2018 to 2023 disinformation related to politics continued to increase, especially during elections.
“In 2023, of the 2,330 disinformation we found, more than half, 1,292, were related to politics, and 646 of them were specific to elections. This trend is increasing every year,” said Mafindo Presidium Chairman Septiaji Eko Nugroho in Perludem’s online discussion titled ‘Portrait of Information Disruption in the 2024 Election and its Potential in the 2024 Simultaneous Pilkada’ (11/6).
Septiaji explained that there are three types of information disruption: misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. He explained that misinformation is information that is spread by the public without knowing that the information is wrong. Information that is deliberately spread to mislead is called disinformation. Meanwhile, malinformation is information that is true but used in a misleading way, such as being cut or taken out of context.
Furthermore, Septiaji said, disinformation is often in the form of original photos but used misleadingly or cropped. In the 2024 presidential election, he said disinformation was used to attack candidates as part of a dark campaign. That misunderstanding is often used to spread disinformation.
While the most used platform to spread disinformation is YouTube, followed by TikTok, Facebook, Twitter, and conversation apps. According to Septiaji, the challenge faced during the 2024 elections is that hoax content uses more videos. Based on his findings, video hoax content spreads faster and more widely than other forms.
“Currently, the majority of content is in the form of videos, which makes disinformation easier to spread because videos are more attractive to audiences,” Septiaji explained.
Currently, video content created with artificial intelligence is starting to appear in Indonesia. Deepfake audio or video content is created using Generative AI, which is also commonly used in content writing and candidate campaign photos. For example, Deepfake video of President Soeharto who had died went viral at the end of the campaign period, in the video, Soeharto invited voters to vote for the Golongan Karya (Golkar) Party. There were also videos of President Joko Widodo giving a speech in Mandarin, and presidential candidate Anies Baswedan giving a speech in Arabic.
“Content created with artificial intelligence is also starting to appear in Indonesia. This technology can engineer audio and video so that it is difficult to distinguish between real and fake,” he explained.
Differences in Disinformation Handling Regulations between Elections and Regional Head Elections
Meanwhile, Commissioner of the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), Lolly Suhenty, said that there are differences in regulations regarding disinformation in elections and regional elections. She explained, in the Election Law, the definition of campaign has been explained in more detail the elements and images contained, while the Pilkada Law is still very general. He also views that the definition of handling violations in the Pilkada Law still has many weaknesses.
“In the Pilkada law, Bawaslu can only provide recommendations for administrative violations, while in the Election law, Bawaslu’s decision is final and binding,” Lolly explained.
Given the many weaknesses, Lolly said it is important to expand the regulatory glasses used to handle disinformation. According to her, by combining various regulations, especially Law Number 1/2008 on Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE), it can further reach disinformation violations in the 2024 elections.
The Threat of Election Vulnerability in 2024
Based on the vulnerability of campaigns on social media according to Bawaslu’s Election Vulnerability Index (IKP) for the 2024 General Elections and 2024 Regional Elections, it shows different patterns of vulnerability at the provincial and district and city levels. The provinces most prone to social media campaigns containing hoaxes, SARA politicization, and hate speech are DKI Jakarta, North Maluku, Bangka Belitung Islands, West Java, South Kalimantan, and Gorontalo. Meanwhile, the three districts or cities with the highest vulnerability are Intanjaya Regency, Malacca Regency, and East Jakarta City.
“This is a big challenge because the spread of inaccurate content is not limited to one region, but can start anywhere in Indonesia,” said Lolly.
Meanwhile, the results of Bawaslu’s cyber surveillance from November 28, 2023 to February 10, 2024 found that of the 355 contents that had been monitored, the Facebook platform was the platform with the highest number of alleged content violations, namely 33.2% content and Youtube was the least with two contents or 0.6%. Meanwhile, based on the type, of the 355 monitored contents, hate speech was identified as the most type of alleged violation, namely 340 or 96%, while the type of fake news had the least number, namely 5 or 1%.
Lolly emphasized that Bawaslu is committed to increasing public education and collaboration with related parties in order to overcome this challenge ahead of the 2024 Election. Currently, her office continues to develop a technology-based supervision strategy with the use of media intelligence applications and digital content monitoring. He hopes that these strategic steps can create a cleaner, fairer and more transparent election environment.
“We need to think ahead, overcome various problems without violating existing rules. Civil society is a very important element in this process,” he concluded. []
