Cyberpolitics in the Transformation of Political Communication and Digital Democracy in Indonesia

Abstract

This article discusses cyberpolitics as part of the transformation of political communication and digital democracy in Indonesia. The development of social media, digital platforms, messaging applications, online video channels, algorithms, and data-based communication networks has changed how citizens, candidates, political parties, and platforms interact in political processes. This study uses thematic content analysis based on literature and document review. The data used include academic literature on cyberpolitics, digital campaigning, disinformation, platform governance, digital political participation, and digital democracy; policy and regulatory documents as institutional context; and public digital data, electoral data, and disinformation reports as empirical context. The findings show that cyberpolitics in Indonesia develops around five main themes: the transformation of digital political space, digital campaigning and political platformization, disinformation and algorithms, digital political participation, and digital democracy governance. This article argues that cyberpolitics not only expands political communication and citizen participation, but also creates new power relations among political actors, citizens, platforms, data, and algorithms. Therefore, digital democracy governance needs to be directed toward campaign transparency, platform accountability, digital political literacy, data protection, and the integrity of electoral information.