You are invited to CHL PhD Candidate Anita Wahid's Mid Term Review.
Time: 10am to 11:30am AEDT
Date: Thursday, 6 February 2024
Speaker: Anita Wahid, PhD Candidate
Venue: Seminar Room G (3.304) and
Online via Microsoft Teams
Meeting ID: 459 338 163 26
Meeting Passcode: Hk3pa6uc
Indonesia is one of the young democracies in the world that has seen the deployment of disinformation in its past elections. The Presidential election of 2019 had shown how this phenomenon had hurt not only the election process and trust towards election as democratic institution but also affected the political discourse long after the election had completed. This raised concern that the Presidential election of 2024 will also see deliberate disinformation campaign mixed in the electoral campaigns.
In response to this concern, many Indonesian civil society organisations have assembled in coalitions to rise against electoral disinformation in 2024 election. They had set up and implement a series of mitigation strategies to prevent disinformation from undermining electoral integrity. However, as the campaign and election process unfolded, it was apparent that disinformation was not the main tool being used to win the election. Instead of disinformation, other form of influence operations was more prominent as the main tool.
Given this unforeseen turn of events, Anita seeks to have some questions addressed: How did CSOs respond to the shift from disinformation to other forms of influence operations in the 2024 Indonesian Presidential election? To what extent did the response address threat to electoral information integrity? How do the capacity and capability of CSOs influence their effectiveness in developing and implementing strategies to mitigate disinformation and other influence operations? Are there any external factors needed to influence CSOs’ effectiveness in mitigating disinformation and other influence operations, and if so, what, and how do they matter?
Equally important as understanding the dynamic of disinformation and influence operations in election, understanding civil society’s efforts in mitigating them can uncover the importance of civil society in defending democracies and electoral information integrity.
Event Speakers
CHL PhD Candidate Anita Wahid
Anita Wahid is a PhD candidate at the ANU School of Culture, History and Language. Her research focuses on investigating civil society’s efforts in mitigating disinformation in Indonesian 2024 Presidential election. Prior to commencing her PhD program, she has been an activist advocating for human rights and democracy in Indonesia.