Executive Summary
The latest general elections to elect the president, vice president, and members of legislative bodies at the national, provincial, and city/regency levels were held in Indonesia on February 14, 2024.
Approaching the final deadline for registration of presidential and vice presidential candidates, a few developments–namely the Constitutional Court decision on the age eligibility of candidates, and the General Elections Commission (Komisi Pemilihan Umum, KPU) decision to change the format of the presidential debate– triggered strong public suspicions that influenced the course of the 2024 presidential election and subsequent online debates.
Social media platforms became battlegrounds for engagement, with candidates sharing their messages and manifestos, targeting the significant demographic of young voters, with TikTok emerging as the dominant battleground.
Given the critical role of social media and increasingly of AI in political and electoral communication, tech companies need to be particularly vigilant that their technology is not used in a way that could undermine this electoral process. While AI companies had policies in place regarding use of their programs for campaigning, they were unable to enforce these policies.
Ahead of the 2024 election, the government and society once again faced the threat of disinformation. However, disinformation during this election cycle was limited compared to the 2019 election, and the civic discussion shifted from the candidates’ track records to the integrity of the election and related processes, with a similar shift also seen in the disinformation sphere.
Fact-checkers faced additional hurdles in this year’s election. Short video content containing disinformation or fake news was increasingly common and was one of the chief problems for fact-checking efforts to combat disinformation. Fact-checkers also worry they are now playing catch-up with AI-generated disinformation.
