With only a little over a week before Indonesia's Presidential elections, TikTok has reportedly become a major battleground for the elections with it being the country's 2nd biggest market.
TikTok is stated to have over 125 million monthly active users, and with the exception of America, Indonesia reportedly has the most TikTok users. Being one of the most popular social media platforms in the nation, an average user spends 29 hours each month scrolling through the feed.
This wide reach of the Bytedance-owned application has prompted all three presidential candidates to produce youth-oriented content on TikTok. Former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo is reportedly pushing posts about penguins, former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan seems to be favorable amongst K-pop fans, and Defense Minister Prabowo Subianto became viral with a video dancing for the masses.
This has reportedly made politics more enjoyable. Rustika Herlambang, a social media specialist at Indonesia Indicator, a consultancy, observes that TikTok is reducing the election to memes, songs, and dances, in contrast to X (previously Twitter), which is utilized by people who are interested in politicians' policies.
The "TikTok Elections"
In what is dubbed as the "TikTok Elections" by one of the candidate's spokesperson, the social media platform seems to be starting a new type of political campaigning that centers on gaining online traction or social media virality. Given that the majority of voters in the next election will be young people, this is all the more important.
Specifically, 52% of eligible voters, or over 106.4 million, are reportedly between the ages of 17 and 40.
As per Straits Times, Candidates began stepping up their social media game well in advance of the official campaign period, which began on Nov. 28, 2023, or about 78 days before the country's more than 200 million eligible voters head to the polls on Feb. 14.
According to Edbert Gani Suryahudaya from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia political campaigners are adjusting to the use of videos, which cover a variety of subjects as Instagram and TikTok have emerged as the go-to sources of information for millennials and Gen Z, including political news.
Leonard Sebastian, an associate professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) concurred, highlighting the different ways in which each contender tried to acquire momentum or go viral on the internet.
TikTok campaigning proves to also support a myriad of advantages aside from virality, widespread mobile phone ownership and high Internet penetration have reportedly made it possible for politicians to connect with people even in the most remote areas of the enormous archipelago of some 17,000 islands.
Bloomberg also states that Jeffrosenberg Chen Lim, head of equity research at PT Maybank Sekuritas Indonesia claims advertising is cheaper on TikTok.
TikTok Against Election Misinformation
While TikTok proves to be advantageous for the presidential hopefuls, election misinformation worries loom as during previous Indonesian elections, CNBC states that misinformation has been a huge problem on social media, with outright lies spreading extensively and being aided by bots and "buzzers," people who work for various organizations to create and spread propaganda.
TikTok however, is attempting to curtail the dissemination of false information as well as its function as a forum for political discourse. These efforts include banning politicians and political parties to use the social media platform for paid political advertising or fundraising.
