A social media cyber war raged throughout Indonesia's past two presidential elections. The effects are still being felt by journalists years later — online discussions have been skewed to give the impression of a majority view, and those who disagree stay quiet.
Victims to what German political scientist Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann dubbed the 'spiral of silence' theory, citizens remain in the grip of fear and suppress their participation in public discussion.
Algorithms sort a user’s social-media feed based on relevance and interest, dragging them into echo chambers where the discussion grows more and more polarised. In Indonesia, cyber warriors became influential when they used algorithms to skew the popularity of topics.
