Efforts to manipulate voters have threatened elections around the world. Global democracy is at risk due to attempts to manipulate digital conversations. Paid professionals, government-backed agents, and ideologically driven amateurs have endangered our digital spaces. They have the means to access powerful tools and to target platforms with weak security.
Incidents of misinformation and online manipulation continue to surface. We have not forgotten the severe misinformation during the pandemic. Nor have we forgotten the divisions that occurred during the 2014, 2019, and 2024 elections due to the prevalence of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation online. Two ways to manipulate voters are misinformation and influence operations (IO). Misinformation refers to the creation and spread of false and misleading information, whether intentionally or unintentionally. IO refers to projects aimed at shaping how people perceive the world.
Misinformation and IO are interconnected. IO may involve spreading misinformation, but it can also take the form of amplifying facts out of proportion in online conversations. The best defense against IO is ensuring that the public knows and understands what is happening. Although IO is difficult to identify and often designed subtly and covertly, we need to thoroughly expose false narratives and widely inform the public. We must understand who is being targeted and, more importantly, who is behind these operations. This means identifying the networks organizing the manipulation and recognizing systemic vulnerabilities that can steer online discussions, pit people against each other, and create confusion and social division.
Efforts to manipulate the public can occur almost anywhere we interact online—not only on commonly suspected platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, or TikTok. These attempts may come from various political spectrums or may be motivated by other factors: many actors disrupt our information environment not for ideological reasons but for money or power.
This is a collective task. The public must push back against operations driven by narrow interests of power-hungry groups. We can develop ways to combine large-scale data analysis with investigative journalism tools. We work together with journalists around the world to help them investigate attempts to influence and manipulate voters.
We will strive to trace IO back to their sources and expose the perpetrators. We must ensure that what we uncover becomes the foundation for a better understanding of modern IO methods—both for voters across the country, members of parliament and policymakers, and the Election Commission itself. The public needs to be empowered to understand the information threats they face.
References
Okthariza, N., Perkasa, V. D., & Rachman, R. (2024). Mengarungi Lanskap Operasi Pemengaruh (Influence Operations) di Indonesia selama Pemilu 2024. Retrieved from https://www.csis.or.id/publication/mengaruhi-lanskap-operasi-pemengaruh-influence-operations-di-indonesia-selama-pemilu-2024/
Okthariza, N., Perkasa, V. D., & Rachman, R. (2024). Menuju Pendekatan Kolaboratif Mengatasi Influence Operations di Indonesia. Retrieved from https://csis.or.id/publication/menuju-pendekatan-kolaboratif-mengatasi-influence-operations-di-indonesia/
