This study analyses the impact of social media election campaigning, disinformation and election propaganda on voters’ perceptions and behaviours in Indonesia’s 2024 presidential election. It assesses the influence of social media platforms and chat messaging apps as sources of election-related information on voters and their level of trust in these mediums. The study also assesses how exposed and susceptible voters have been to various disinformation and election propaganda narratives.
This study shows that merely being exposed to disinformation and election propaganda narratives does not necessarily sway committed loyalists and staunch supporters of a presidential candidate. The acceptance or rejection of specific disinformation and election propaganda narratives is contingent upon personality-based partisanship and allegiances to a particular candidate, corroborating the salience of confirmation bias, the phenomenon where individuals accept only information that is consistent with their political affiliation and pre-existing beliefs about their preferred candidate.
Among ‘swing voters’ (those initially undecided or who are not staunch supporters of a presidential candidate), changes in exposure to disinformation or propaganda narratives are not enough to sway their votes. This study shows that for these voters, it is changes in beliefs in conspicuous election propaganda narratives that sway votes towards or away from a certain presidential candidate.