Networks of trust: Accessing informal work online in Indonesia during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

Although studies on digital labour platforms show how the internet has opened up access to income opportunities in the developing world, they have not explored how informal workers use the internet to access work without an intermediary. Using data from digital ethnography and interviews with workers in Indonesia, this article examines how platform-based motorcycle taxi drivers and domestic workers accessed work through social media during the COVID-19 pandemic when the platforms were not allowed to operate. Findings suggest that while social media offered workers increased opportunities, their success was largely dependent on their social networks and bounded by the algorithms designed by platform owners.