CfDS UGM Unveils the Reactions of the Netizens Towards the Jokowi-Prabowo Meeting in the Senayan MRT Station

Yogyakarta, 19 July 2019—The meeting between Jokowi and Prabowo at the Senayan MRT Station on the 13^th of July triggered both positive and negative responses on Twitter, as revealed by the Center for Digital Society (CfDS) of Universitas Gadjah Mada last Friday.From the 13^th to the 16^th of July, 169,238 Tweets contained hashtags that support the reconciliation. According to Trevilliana Eka Putri, the researcher and also the manager of CfDS, only 15% of this amount were original Tweets. “The rest were Retweets and replies,” she stated.

21% of the Tweets that were supportive of the hashtag #03PersatuanIndonesia (#03UnityoIndonesia) were original. “It means that these posts were more decentralized, more people were willing to express their opinions by using that hashtag. Most of the pro-reconciliation Tweets featured “MRT”, “Indonesia”, “Jokowi”, “Prabowo” and “akhirnya” (at last) as keywords, showcasing the long-awaited reconciliation,” as stated by Paska Darmawan, Putri’s colleague.

On the other hand, there were also Tweets that disapproved the meeting between the two figures. Several popular hashtags were #0p0sisitanparek0nsiliasi (#theoppositionwillnotreconcile), #AniesBaswedanforpresident and #kampretakantetapberjuang (#thetadpoleswillcontinuetostruggle – “tadpole” is a derogatory term used to refer to Prabowo’s supporters), in which the number of original Tweets was 8%, 9% and 8% respectively. Furthermore, the hashtag #rekonsiliasirasaterasi (#shrimppastereconciliation) was consisted of 15% original Tweets. Several keywords in this side were “bantu” (help), “like”, “ayo” (let’s go) and “naikkan tagar” (raise the hashtag), as well as mention to other accounts.

“Most keywords in this side were imperative,” Darmawan conveyed. Putri also added that the high frequency of imperative tweets signified the attempt to popularize these hashtags. Moreover, Darmawan stated that the smaller the percentage of the original Tweets, the more likely a hashtag is controlled only by a handful amount of interconnected accounts.

In addition, the researchers found that there was a significant decrease in the number of Twitter followers of Prabowo and the Gerindra Party during the observation period it the 13^th until the 14^th of July. Usually, the official account of the Gerindra Party gains around 500 new followers every day. However, it lost 508 followers on the first day and another 2228 on the second day. Meanwhile, Prabowo’s official account usually gains 600-700 new followers daily, yet it lost 891 followers on the first day and 4621 more on the second day.

However, the official account of several other figures such as Joko Widodo, Anies Baswedan, Ma’ruf Amin and Sandiaga Uno were relatively unaffected. “This is interesting, as the number of followers and followings didn’t change at the aforementioned dates. It seems that the Twitter followers of Prabowo and the Gerindra Party were relatively disappointed,” Darmawan conveyed.

Furthermore, both Putri and Darmawan stated that this research didn’t focus on any specific location. “We can emphasize on a certain location if the owners of the accounts permit us to access their locations. Focusing on a certain location would also render this research to be less representative, Putri conveyed as a closing statement.