In this webinar, Dr Yatun Sastramidjaja, Ms Emy Ruth Gianan and Dr Wijayanto examined the prevalence and impact of cybertrooping activities in Southeast Asia on cybersecurity and democracy; they also discussed strategic responses on how to build resilience to defend against digital propaganda and disinformation.
MEDIA, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY PROGRAMME WEBINAR
Cyber Troops and Organised Propaganda in Southeast Asia
Tuesday, 7 December 2021 – Dr Yatun Sastramidjaja (ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute), Ms Emy Ruth Gianan (Polytechnic University of the Philippines) and Dr Wijayanto (Diponegoro University and Center for Media and Democracy) spoke on “Building Resistive Resilience to Digital Propaganda and Disinformation” at an ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute webinar. The event was moderated by ISEAS Visiting Fellow, Dr Pauline Leong. The webinar was the last part of a three-part series entitled “Cyber Troops and Organised Propaganda in Southeast Asia”.
Dr Wijayanto kicked off the webinar with his segment on “Strengthening the Role of Journalism as a Bulwark Against Organised Social Media Propaganda”. His presentation aimed to show how Indonesian media are also vulnerable to cyberpropaganda and may be complicit in amplifying the cybertroops’ messages. He began by sharing how cybertroops and social media propaganda influenced traditional media coverage and explained the factors behind the phenomenon. He also discussed how journalism can be a bulwark against social media propaganda by cybertroops. In his presentation, he highlighted the case study of Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) and discussed how it became the target of cybertroops who orchestrated a “tsunami” of information onto social media to discredit KPK. One of the popular narratives was how KPK was akin to the Taliban, and this became headline news on traditional media which influenced public opinion.
Dr Wijayanto also discussed how journalism can regain its purpose of providing accurate, in-depth information to empower citizens. He noted that one of the issues faced by journalists is the pressure to cover and write news that attracts high traffic volume in order to increase profitmaking. Indonesians are also more likely to consume news through social media. Hence, these are some of the many challenges faced by journalists when dealing with organised social media propaganda.
Next, Ms Emy Ruth Gianan compared information policies in three countries, namely the Philippines, Singapore, and Malaysia, in her segment entitled “Building Resilience to Disinformation in Southeast Asia: A Comparative Information Policy Analysis”. She proposed a combination of rights-based cures and context-specific approaches to disinformation, rather than sweeping “reforms” that might do more harm. Ms Emy shared that technology and social media are neutral and double-edged swords, and argued that disinformation is a symptom of a deeper problem that should be treated with nuance.
Ms Emy stated that even though it is a global issue, building resilience to disinformation is highly contextual and country-specific. She emphasises that there is a need to combine different solutions including reviewing current media policies. Another way is to measure the various dimensions of disinformation that would deepen the understanding of the problem and provide important tools to approach the problem at hand. One solution she proposes is an ASEAN disinformation index tool that can help regular citizens, academics, and politicians.
Lastly, Dr Yatun Sastramidjaja shared her segment on “Beating the Buzzers: Recognising and Utilising Citizen Capacities for Resistive Resilience to Cyber-Propaganda” where she discussed the counterweight offered by civil society, and how this might be utilised to build a citizen-oriented information ecology. Dr Yatun explained how certain current policies addressed the symptoms of cyberpropaganda rather than tackle the core issues. Her research shows that opinion manipulation is deeply institutionalised.
Nevertheless, effective efforts can be made to tackle such issues. In her opinion, online disinformation campaigns are akin to “small sprints”, and the solution is to address the issues in terms of “marathons” because it must be etched deep enough to last in the long run as cybertroops spread propaganda for a living. Hence, Dr Yatun argues for an information ecology that has to be cultivated at the grassroots level.
The Question and Answer segment saw a variety of questions, such as how policy changes on disinformation may impact freedom of speech and whether netizens are able to distinguish between actual information and buzzing activities.
The webinar had 49 unique visitors.