Control the State in the Era of Digital Democracy

The Case Study of East Java Elections in 2018

Bayu Priambodo

Magister of Political Science, Universitas Airlangga, Surabaya, Indonesia

Keywords: Indonesia, digital democracy, political participation, state control, freedom

Abstract: The rapid development of information technology means political participation in the digital world is

increasing. Political participation in the large digital world has made it necessary for the state to exist to

control democracy in the digital age. This study aims to describe and analyse the control of the country in

the era of digital democracy using the theory of digital democracy by Anthony G. Wilhem. Methods in this

study are qualitative and descriptive and include data collection techniques using interviews. The results of

this study indicate that state control limits political participation in the era of digital democracy. Some actors

in digital democracy are severely disadvantaged by the control of the state. The purpose of the state itself is

not to limit freedom in democracy but through freedom in democracy not to harm the rights of others.

1 INTRODUCTION

The development of information technology is

increasingly sophisticated and many people who use

the internet contribute to digital democracy. Digital

democracy is a new form of democracy as a result of

technological development where, in digital

democracy, there is no space, time, and other

physical conditions but it is not a substitute for

traditional analogue political practices (Kenneth &

Dijk, 2000). Digital democracy in practice uses

digital media to communicate online.

The development of increasingly sophisticated

information technology is very helpful for

community activities even in the affairs of political

participation. Many people use digital media such as

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Online Media to

participate in politics through things such as mutual

discussions, deliberations, giving opinions and

criticism as a form of surveillance by citizens.

Currently many citizens who use the internet to

search for any information so many who do political

campaigns through social media. The influence of

social media in the election is very high. One of

them is Jokowi and Ahok’s victory in the Jakarta

election in 2012 where social media became an

effective tool for organising citizens and voters

(Utomo. Wisnu Prasetya, 2013). Dissemination of

information through social media is cheaper and

more efficient because many people today are using

social media especially among young people.

Indonesia itself gets a demographic bonus because,

in the election, the number of productive age is very

much and they are actively using internet and social

media.

Today many young people are using the internet

for political literacy. Social media provides rapid

accessibility and dissemination of information so

that it will facilitate the delivery of opinions and

ideas to influence government policy (Ruby,

Cristina, 2014). Millennials today prefer to engage

in politics through digital media (Nelson, Lewis &

Lei, 2017). This study shows that young people are

more involved online than offline in discussing

political issues. They do not want to interfere

directly in politics but they use their own way to

participate in politics. They use the internet a lot to

influence the policies of the authorities. So now

social media has a very strong influence in the

process of democracy.

The more people who use the internet to channel

their opinions and ideas, the greater the digital

democracy within a country. In this case, the state

must be present to control the digital democracy to

run properly and fairly. Political campaigns through

social media should not be offensive to a person,

religion, tribe, race, class in a way that can harm

others. This arrangement refers to the 2008 ITE Law

where the ITE Law was created to protect internet

activity and increasingly sophisticated cybercrime.

Priambodo, B.

Control the State in the Era of Digital Democracy.

DOI: 10.5220/0008815800100014

In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs (ICoCSPA 2018), pages 10-14

ISBN: 978-989-758-393-3

2 THEORITICAL REVIEW

Computers and the internet that emerged in the

1980s and 1990s, posed problems in the political

field and future policy-making processes. Wilhelm

(2000) describes the attempt to change which

emerges from the increasingly sophisticated

advances in technology for digital democracy. There

are four characteristics of cyberspace that exist in

digital democracy. Firstly, the essential resource is

the basic ability to write, speak and speak well. The

basic fundamentals of the community include the

interaction through which people have the

opportunity to express their choices through

sophisticated telecommunication equipment.

Thirdly, freedom, allows people to propose their

ideas and opinions for giving the power of law. With

free democracy, the documented debates in politics

need to provide reasons to support their argument.

Fourthly, the design, which includes information

networks, including networks that are interactive,

should be quiet, safe, and uncensored, with

sufficient capacity preserved for non-commercial

purposes.

3 METHOD

This research uses a descriptive qualitative method

and focuses on state control in digital democracy.

The technique for collecting data was interview so

that researchers could explore information on how

the state controls digital democracy. Information

digging is also supported by data collection from

documentation studies by conducting tracking and

identification.

4 DISCUSSION

4.1 Political Campaigns in Digital

Democracy

With the increasing number of internet users,

political campaigns are often conducted using social

media and online media. In Indonesia itself, in a

study conducted by We Are Social and Hootsuite,

the research results showed that internet users in

Indonesia are very fond of using social media to

interact. Approximately 130 million Indonesians are

active on various social media such as Facebook,

Twitter, YouTube and Instagram. As many as 54%

of internet users are on the island of Java. So, the

basis of digital democracy in Indonesia is on the

island of Java and became the national election

benchmark.

The east java elections in 2018 were a bit unique

because the fight to win in the election was not

focused on the candidate for governor but on the

vice governor. The East Java community is familiar

with the name of Gus Ipul and Khofifah who is a

candidate for governor but the people of East Java

were not familiar with the name of Emil Dardak and

Puti Guntur, the vice governor candidates. The two

vice governor candidates were new figures in East

Java, so they needed to be introduced to the people

of East Java. In introducing the two vice governor

candidates in the eastern Java elections in 2018,

many people used social media and online media.

Campaigns using social media and online media are

cheaper and today's society prefers to search for

information using the internet.

One of the practices of digital democracy is how

social media influence the policies of the authorities.

The spread of bad photos led to a lot of negative

news about Azwar Anas which caused him to drop

out of the nomination for deputy governor of East

Java. This shows that the influence of social media

in digital democracy is very high. According to

Anthony G. Wilhelm (2000) the involvement and

freedom of the people to use and access the internet

allows the public to be able to channel their opinions

and ideas to put pressure on or control the authorities

so as to be able to give control to a government.

After Azwar Anas resigned from the group of vice

governor candidates, the position of deputy governor

candidate was taken by Puti Guntur Seokarno. To

introduce Puti Guntur to the people of East Java,

many people used the internet media. So, in a short

time, the people of East Java were able to know

something about the figure of this Guntur Puti. The

basic resources possessed by society are a political

function to recognise the figure of a future leader.

This was seen when nominating Puti Guntur as a

substitute for Azwar Anas as a candidate for Vice

Governor of the community immediately find the

year who Puti Guntur is.

4.2 State Control in Digital Democracy

The greater the influence of digital democracy, the

more the state must be present in controlling the

digital democracy. Indonesia is a country that

implements direct election then the state control

must exist to maintain political stability. In direct

elections, the competition between candidates for

elections in the election is enormous because they

Control the State in the Era of Digital Democracy

have to convince the people that they are eligible to

be elected so that direct election is very draining on

resources owned by the party and the leader

candidate. They are mobilising all the resources they

have to win in direct elections. One of the biggest

expenditures in direct elections is to conduct

political campaigns. To conduct a campaign,

political parties or prospective leaders spend

substantial funds. One way to reduce the cost of

such a large campaign, is to use social media and

online media to conduct campaigns. In addition,

online media and social media are quite cheap, and

many people access them to search for and share

information. Indonesian people also use the internet

to open social media. So, with the number of

campaigns conducted on social media or online

media then the state must be present to control the

phenomenon for democracy to run well.

The state regulates the use of social medical as a

campaign tool through Law no. 8 of 2015 on the

Election of Governor and Vice Governor, Regent

and Deputy Regent and Mayor and Deputy Mayor,

under Election Law. The state organises campaigns

on social media so that campaigns do not insult a

person, religion, tribe, race class, or incite, insult,

slander, or pit groups, individuals, community

groups and so forth against each other. Forms of

state control are also contained in the KPU

regulation no. 7 of 2015 on electoral campaigns

together with articles 41,46,47 and 48 which state

that campaigns for candidate pairs can be done using

social media. Paired candidates can create social

media accounts for purposes during the campaign

period but the social media accounts must be

registered to the election organiser of the local

KPUD. The social media accounts must be

registered the day before the campaign period. This

is done so it is easy to carry out surveillance

considering it is now easy to create a fake account

that is used to spread hoax news. The existence of an

official account registered at the Election

Commission will minimise the spread of hoax news

in the community.

In addition to these two regulations, there is also

Bawaslu Regulation no. 8 of 2016 on amendments to

the regulation of the election supervisory body

number 10 of 2015 on the supervision of regional

head elections campaigns. The regulation was made

to oversee the campaign during the election. Here

Bawaslu is specifically working with the police to

crack down on a black campaign. Bawaslu will

examine whether the black campaign includes

administrative or criminal offenses. If it proves that

it is an administrative violation then it is still under

the authority of Bawaslu but if it is deemed a

criminal case it will be the responsibility of the

police. Bawaslu will examine the black campaign

case for three days but if that is not enough then

there will be an additional two days to study it. In

the east Java election, Bawaslu never sanctioned one

of the candidate pairs for proven to violate the rules.

The candidate pair was proven to put up a campaign

ad on one of the online media sites before the

campaign was open. Bawaslu sent warning letters to

the team of the candidate pairs and also to the online

media company.

With various forms of regulation made by the

state to control digital democracy, there are severely

disadvantaged parties. Internet users in Indonesia are

very much making online media companies benefit

because they can provide information very quickly

to the readers. Successful teams of election

participants often use this to advertise in online

media companies because online media readers are

numerous. This was proven by the east Java

elections in 2008 and 2013; one of the largest online

media company’s servers in East Java experienced

overload because a lot of people accessed the news

about the election. In addition, the reason the team

successfully put an ad campaign on online media is

that it is relatively cheap and can be read by many

groups.

According to the online media company itself,

the moment of the regional head election is

something that is in waiting because online media

companies get an abundant advantage of advertising

campaigns of candidate pairs. But because there are

so many rules issued by the state to control digital

democracy, the online media companies call the

2018 east java elections with the term "not rain".

This is because, in every election, the company

makes a lot of profit from advertising but, in this

election, the online media company only got a little

profit. The country's control in the East Java election

of 2018 was, indeed, somewhat increased from the

previous year because the development of

information technology has been very fast and the

state must be present to control digital democracy

which is becoming a bigger phenomenon by the day.

State control in this increasing digital democracy

cannot be separated from the experience in the

Jakarta elections in 2017. In the 2017 Jakarta general

election, the movement of social media was massive,

causing movements that could trigger conflict

(Ikramina, Tia Zatu, 2017). The campaign in the

election of DKI Jakarta used social media to conduct

a negative black campaign so as to cause enormous

protests to reject one candidate pair because it is not

ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs

a belief and considered insulting one of the groups.

The wave of protests caused by the influence of

social media could trigger a very dangerous conflict.

Learning from the experience of the Jakarta

elections, the state must control digital democracy

more strongly in order not to cause movement that

could trigger conflict in society.

The state makes all the rules so that the public

space remains conducive to the realisation of a

secure and comfortable digital democracy. In

reference to the theory of digital democracy,

Anthony Wilhelm states that there are four

conditions to ensure ideal cyberspace to maintain a

conducive climate for digital democracy.

The first is that the former resource is the

community's ability to use various technologies to

obtain information. The increasingly sophisticated

technological developments make the community

grow dynamically; it is no longer static. This is

because the public can very easily get information

from the internet that requires people to adapt to

follow the times. The adaptability of the community

to use information technology will greatly influence

the development of digital democracy as it relates to

what they access. The ability of the community to

understand content on social media or online media

can be measured from their educational status. The

higher a person's education the more proficient the

ability to be able to know whether the information is

correct and which information is a hoax. But if

people have low education then they will find it very

difficult to distinguish which information is correct

and which is hoax. They will be easily pre-populated

about hoax news spread across the media and they

also share the hoax, so that the preceding resources

must be fulfilled to realize a conducive digital

democracy. The second condition is engagement. If

the first condition is fulfilled then the community

needs to be involved in the exchange of information

online. Involvement here refers to freedom to access

and exchange information in the digital world.

Currently people prefer to exchange information

through the digital realm than conventionally

because it is considered more quick and efficient.

Community involvement in political participation in

digital democracy is necessary so that people can

control the policies made by the government. If

society does not want to engage in political

participation in digital democracy then the deviation

of a government is bound to happen. So, the

involvement of people for digital democracy to run

well is very important.

The third condition is freedom. Actually, the

freedom of Indonesian society has been regulated in

the law. Freedom referred to here is the freedom to

debate, discuss and put forward ideas or ideas to the

public. So, with this freedom, people can exchange

information in the public sphere. Communities can

pass the activity for the sifting of opinion, conduct

discussion and debate by face to face or through

cyberspace. But the current problems that occur in

many countries and not just in Indonesia occur

because the freedom to spread information and

debate in the virtual world can trigger conflict in the

community. Incorrect dissemination of information

such as hate speech, slander and hoax can trigger

conflict in the community. So, the fourth

requirement relates to design. Involvement and

freedom so as not to trigger conflict in the

community needs to be regulated by the

government. The government needs to take a

preventive step so that the debate and exchange of

information in the digital world does not trigger

conflict in the community. It has been seen by

Wilhelm that engagement and freedom will trigger a

commotion in society because democracy itself is

essentially a managed conflict. So, the government

needs to ensure it designs good regulations in order

to keep digital democracy running well.

In the East Java elections, the practice of digital

democracy can be said to be safe because it does not

cause conflict in the community. All political parties

and prospective leaders follow all forms of control

set by the state. They, in conducting political

campaigns through social media, also register all

their social media accounts to the KPUD. So, when

the country wants to know all the activities of the

campaign through social media can be controlled

properly. The KPUD also socialises the official

accounts of potential leaders. This is done so that

people do not easily believe in hoax information

spread through social media. If there is a social

media that spreads bad news outside the official

account registered with the KPUD East Java, it can

be ascertained that the information is a hoax. But in

the East Java election there are also violations so the

state must take action. One of the successful teams

of prospective couples pairs advertisements in online

media without first reporting to the KPUD East Java.

Therefore, the KPUD gives a reprimand to the team

of the candidate's success. But overall digital

democracy in the East java elections run quite safely

and fairly.

Control the State in the Era of Digital Democracy

5 CONCLUSION

State control in digital democracy aims to make the

democratic process work well. The state gives

freedom and involvement to the community using

various social media or online media to participate

in the East Java elections. Digital democracy in the

East Java election process runs quite safely because

it does not cause conflict in society. All elements in

the election process follow all forms of control

established by the state so that the election process

can run safely. The country was able to run all the

controls in the practice of East java elections in

2018. Although the state control is detrimental to

online media companies, it must be done to maintain

the quality of democracy in order for it to run well.

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ICoCSPA 2018 - International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs