7. Social Media as the Virtual Public Sphere Ahead of the 2019 General Election in Indonesia

Abstract

Social media is one of many online platforms on the internet. This research chose Facebook among existing social media sites to analyze its context as a virtual public sphere ahead of the 2019 Indonesian General Election. Democracy requires freedom of expressions from every party. Social media is one of the platforms that can carry out that function. The research is using the Political Economy of New Media as the theoretical approach. In this qualitative research study, the data is collected through in-depth interview. The results showed that on one hand, the social media has the power to increase the citizens' democratic participation. However, on the other hand, they are the source of hoax and digital data leakage. Seemingly, the Indonesian Government has not yet anticipated this problem through the internet use regulations in the upcoming General Election. The law enforcement also has not yet shown any justice regarding the problems within social media use. The use of social media is overshadowed by the digital capitalization overshadowed that might affect the implementation of democracy.