Yogyakarta, October 5th 2023─Digitalization has now penetrated various fields, including politics. However, it needs to be examined whether digitalization has been balanced with digital literacy in responding to it. This is because digital intelligence is sometimes still not optimally utilized to support the acceleration of the quality of life. Welcoming the 2024 General Election in the midst of the digital era, DMKP Fisipol UGM held a seminar in the framework of the 68th Anniversary of FISIPOL UGM on Thursday (05/10) at the Auditorium of Fisipol UGM with the theme “Election Transformation of 2024: Digital Intelligence as a Catalyst for Change”.
Yuli Isnadi, Lecturer of DMKP UGM highlighted the degradation of digital intelligence in elections. The development of technology, communication, and information can inevitably change social tools. Such as social media that provides space to represent one’s own rights, such as the right to voice or opinion without being represented by groups and algorithms that provide a bubble effect so that there is no critical thinking process and only confirms previous beliefs.
“In addition, there is a hoax phenomenon that follows the election calendar schedule. This means that hoaxes do not occur naturally but by design,” Isnadi explained.
This is based on the results of a report by the Indonesian Anti-Fake Society 2023 which states that there is a spread of hoaxes of around 40% about the election, with Facebook as the social media with the highest spread of hoaxes. The same thing was conveyed by Iradat Wirid, Executive Secretary of CfDS, who highlighted that the organization of the 2024 elections seemed hasty and did not provide the public with clear information. According to Wirid, the 2024 elections also have challenges such as misinformation, disinformation, and artificial intelligence technology such as buzzers, deepfakes, and cyber troops.
Corporate Communication Lead of Bijak Memilih, Yosifebi Ramadhani also mentioned that the current presidential campaign tends to be polarized on personal issues rather than policies on the urgency of problems in society.
“There is nothing wrong with the ‘reliability’ campaign, but it is important for us as voters not to forget the issues that ‘relate’ to us in the future,” said Yosi.
Meanwhile, Bijak Memilih as an independent movement seeks to curate objective and relevant information easily to help voters gain a good understanding of political parties and political actors. Digital intelligence in various fields also needs to be addressed with good and equitable digital literacy at all levels of society. CfDS as a study center under FISIPOL has successfully held Digital Intelligence Classes as one of the digital literacy efforts for the community.
Interestingly, although Indonesia has entered the digital era, organizing elections digitally seems to be a long way off. Isnadi said that many factors such as infrastructure, cyber security issues, and post-politics have become obstacles for Indonesia to digitize elections in the next 5 or 10 years.
This agenda is in line with UGM’s commitment to support SDGs 16, which is Peace, Justice, and Resilient Institutions.