Disinformation in Indonesia intensifies during politically stressful events—but its format is shifting fast. On June 11, 2025, Rifqi Rachman, SAIL’s research consultant, spoke at an FPCI Reality Checks workshop covering three key topics:

1. Disinformation trends on Indonesian social media
   
2. Factors driving the rapid spread of disinformation in Indonesia’s online ecosystem
   
3. Youth empowerment in producing accurate and responsible content

Rifqi opened by noting that disinformation tends to intensify during politically stressful events, such as elections. However, SAIL’s latest survey found that recent disinformation trends in Indonesia had limited impact on voters, owing to elite consensus (in contrast to the deeply divisive camps of 2019), greater platform involvement, and sustained fact-checking efforts. The most significant shift is in format and production speed: false narratives now spread in short, explicit form, primarily through short video. 

Rifqi also identified additional drivers of election-related disinformation: the public rarely verifies claims, and few users report content that violates platform community standards. At the cognitive level, disinformation captures attention and triggers survival instincts, reinforcing “negativity bias” (Yoshida, 2021) toward false and negative information.

Rifqi closed with three recommendations for participants: first, become storytellers within their own networks—credible sources that capture attention and engage audiences; second, act as curative agents who help rebuild the infrastructure of truth in their communities; and third, stay attuned to public sentiment while consistently introducing the values they wish to promote into the digital ecosystem.