The Indonesian government and political parties mobilize and finance cyber troops, aka buzzers, on social media to manipulate public opinion, according to a recent study by scientists from Oxford University, England.
The deployment of buzzers by the Indonesian government was reviewed by two Oxford scientists, Samantha Bradshaw and Philip N Howard in a report titled The Global Disinformation Order, 2019 Global Inventory of Organized Social Media Manipulation.
In the report it was revealed that the government and political parties in Indonesia used buzzers to spread pro-government / party propaganda, attack political opponents, and spread information to divide the public.
In addition, it was also found that in Indonesia, the government and political parties used private parties or contractors and politicians to spread propaganda and messages on social media.
While the tools used are fake accounts operated by people and by bots.
Based on its contents the content distributed by the government and political parties in Indonesia consists of two types: information that misleads the media or the public and secondly, reinforces the message by continually flooding social media with hashtags.
The buzzers in Indonesia, according to the study, are not permanently contracted by the government or political parties. They are usually paid in the range of Rp. 1 million to Rp. 50 million.
In Indonesia, the buzzers are engaged in three main social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, as well as in the WhatsApp messaging application. The buzzers haven't moved much on Youtube.
The researchers in this report generally found that manipulation of public opinion utilizing social media was carried out by 70 countries around the world in 2019, up from only 48 countries in 2018 and 28 countries in 2017.
"The use of computational propaganda to shape public behavior via social media has become common, is no longer the action of a handful of evil actors," the researchers wrote in the report.
China, according to the study, is the country most active in propaganda on social media. Not only does it affect the domestic public, Chinese propaganda has also targeted a global audience.
"In 2019 the Chinese government will start moving the global social media platform to smear the struggle for democracy in Hong Kong," the report said further.
Another interesting finding from the report is how Facebook is the main tool used by cyber troops or buzzers around the world.
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