Patrick Star from children’s cartoon Spongebob Squarepants. Rihanna’s record-breaking Super Bowl performance. Viral songs, explosive effects and comic-like graphics.

These were all crammed into a 32-second clip about Indonesian presidential candidate and former Central Java governor Ganjar Pranowo and uploaded on video-sharing platform TikTok on May 25, 2023.

Sounds like a haphazard mishmash of things, but it worked. The video, featuring Mr Ganjar asking a young couple about their relationship, is one of the most popular posts on TikTok about an Indonesian presidential candidate, with more than 4.3 million likes.

Going viral and being talked about is the name of the game on the virtual campaign trail ahead of February’s presidential election in Indonesia, and all three presidential candidates and their running mates have spent the past few months trying to break new ground on their social media accounts.

But as they dance, pose, go “live” and do whatever it takes to garner likes, comments and shares, the war they are waging in the digital space opens up a new can of worms - it amplifies the dangers of fake news and hampers more engaged public discourse.

There is also the question of how social media numbers influence vote share: Does being popular online also mean being popular at the ballot box?

While the official campaigning period started only on Nov 28, 2023, some 78 days before the nation’s more than 200 million eligible voters head to the polls on Feb 14, the candidates had started stepping up their social media game way before then.

The three pairs in the contest are former Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan, 54, and his running mate, former minister of manpower and transmigration Muhaimin Iskandar, 57; Mr Ganjar, 55, and Chief Security Minister Mahfud MD, 66; and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, 72, and Solo mayor Gibran Rakabuming Raka, 36, the elder son of incumbent President Joko Widodo.

All six candidates are active on Facebook and Instagram, and all except for Mr Prabowo and Mr Mahfud are on TikTok.

Candidate followers on each platform as at December 2023

Data from media monitoring platform Meltwater found that from January to December 2023, Mr Prabowo has been the candidate most popular on Facebook. All the top five posts in terms of engagement - the number of likes, comments and shares - went to him, with the top post being one in May where he wore a hoodie and complimented the youth of Indonesia.

Mr Ganjar, meanwhile, emerged as the leader on both TikTok and Instagram, with the top five posts of both platforms being his.

In contrast to his top TikTok post, the top Instagram one was a political post on Sept 12, 2023, in which he called for unity among Indonesians and for them to show tolerance towards each other.

Dr Natalie Pang, associate professor in communications and new media at the National University of Singapore, said social media is very much a part of electoral campaigns today. This is because it has become a part of media that many people consume on an everyday basis, and therefore is a means by which candidates can engage directly with voters.

On TikTok, Ganjar has the top 5 posts among all candidates

But what is different about social media use in this election compared with that of past elections is the broader use of video platforms like TikTok, noted Mr Edbert Gani Suryahudaya from the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Indonesia.

Mr Edbert, a researcher at the centre’s department of Politics and Social Change, said political campaigners are adapting to the use of videos, covering a wide range of topics.

“Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have become the primary source of information, including on politics, for millennials and Gen Z in Indonesia,” he said.

Associate Professor Leonard Sebastian from the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) echoed this observation, pointing to various attempts by each pair of candidates to become viral or gain traction online.

Mr Prabowo has in recent months emerged with a new “gemoy” persona. The word is a play on “gemas”, an Indonesian slang term widely used by youngsters to mean cute or adorable.

The identity comes complete with a signature dance, and experts have said that the persona has been used to soften the ex-military man’s hardline image, including suspected human rights violations.

On Facebook, Prabowo has the top 5 posts among all candidates

The Ganjar-Mahfud pairing has been actively promoting a three-finger salute, which some might recognise from the popular fiction series The Hunger Games. Prof Sebastian notes that it draws reference from the salute’s usage in Thailand and Myanmar that emphasises an identification with democratic activism.

In the case of Mr Anies, cats have been one of his tools of choice to appeal to voters. The cats themselves have grabbed headlines, including one named Aslan after a post showing it giving a “cat massage” to Mr Anies and another by the name of Lego, after a book series was published in July about the three-legged feline.

Top 5 posts on Anies Baswedan's Instagram

In recent weeks, Mr Anies has been enjoying newfound popularity on TikTok, particularly after he hosted several live streams from Dec 31 that have drawn more than 720,000 viewers.

To show their support and compliment him, fans have taken to X, formerly known as Twitter. A fan account @aniesbubble, modelled after the kind of treatment K-pop idols get, complete with Korean script, gained more than 100,000 followers in the first three days of 2024.

“Such gimmicks by the presidential candidates are designed to attract the attention of a younger generation of voters, particularly as a strategy to introduce themselves to these young voters,” said Prof Sebastian.

This is all the more significant considering how young people will make up the majority of voters in the upcoming election. More than 106.4 million of the eligible voters, or 52 per cent, of them, are aged 17 to 40.

High Internet penetration and widespread mobile phone ownership have allowed politicians to reach out to even those living in remote corners of the vast archipelago of some 17,000 islands.

On Instagram, Ganjar has the top 5 posts among all candidates

By focusing on positive and entertaining campaigning on social media, the candidates hope to resonate with the preferences and attitudes of their target audience, said Mr Made Supriatma from the ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute.

“The decision to target the youth demographic, which has a significant presence in the polls, suggests a strategic move to align with the values and interests of this demographic,” said Mr Made, who is a visiting fellow at the institute’s Indonesia Studies Programme.

Google searches serve as a gauge of interest generated by different presidential candidates.

Indonesia’s ruling party picks popular governor Ganjar Pranowo as its presidential candidate on April 21. In October, it intensified its campaign on social media, achieving more than 1 million views on several Instagram posts.

Mr Prabowo Subianto announced on Oct 22 that his running mate would be Solo mayor Mr Gibran Rakabuming Raka, the elder son of President Joko Widodo.

The first presidential debate was held on Dec 12, from which Mr Anies Baswedan emerged as the most talked-about candidate online.

Observers, however, are split over whether popularity on social media translates into popularity at the ballot box.

Indeed, despite Mr Ganjar having the most popular posts on TikTok and Instagram, recent opinion polls show that support for him is slipping.

A survey by local pollster Indikator Politik Indonesia from Dec 23 to Dec 24 showed that support for Mr Ganjar fell 1.1 percentage points from a month earlier to 24.5 per cent. This was preceded by a 4.4-point decline the previous month. Front-runner Mr Prabowo’s support was found to be 46.7 per cent, which improved by 0.9 percentage point following a 6.1-point improvement in the previous month, while Mr Anies received 21.0 per cent.

When campaigning on social media, what is also important is how effective the messaging is and how people respond to it, noted Mr Made. He singled out the use of the “gemoy” persona by Mr Prabowo as a noteworthy approach.

“The decision to downplay political tensions and foster a more light-hearted, joyful campaign, as seen in the ‘Goyang Gemoy!’ (gemoy dance) approach, reflects a deliberate attempt to appeal to the younger demographic,” he said.

Mr Prabowo is alleged to have committed human rights abuses, as the head of the army’s special forces, in Timor-Leste when it was part of Indonesia, and of being involved in the kidnapping of 13 student activists in the archipelago in 1998. He has denied these claims.

More than 106 million of eligible voters, or 52%, are aged 17 to 40

Viral social media posts, which usually have elements of good visualisation and a compact message, could be more appealing to voters than other forms of outreach by candidates, said Prof Sebastian.

“Debates on weighty topics, such as political dynasties, have limited appeal, attracting only a small proportion of the general population, namely, the educated middle class,” he said.

Achieving virality or consistently being at the top of the conversation is undoubtedly the aim of using social media, noted Mr Edbert, adding that this was reflected in how news outlets frequently carry what is viral on these platforms in their headlines.

He noted that the many first-time voters are vulnerable to political gimmicks like those on social media, which means that what the candidates do on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and other outlets could influence their decision.

“First-time voters, without any prior experience in elections, are susceptible to manipulation and mobilisation. The lack of general political knowledge makes the youth an easy target for gimmicks that may resonate with their popular culture,” said Mr Edbert.

Analysts have also warned that disinformation and division is being sowed online by “buzzers” – known elsewhere as cyber troops and trolls – who are paid to manipulate public opinions of the candidates.

Most of these individuals are loyal only to whoever is paying them and use social media to upload, comment on or share posts and images that are fake or spread misinformation. Others are voluntary buzzers, who share common political views with the candidates they support.

The presence of buzzers is not new; they have appeared in Indonesia’s past elections. But their danger remains, according to some observers.

Given the improvements in digital literacy in society and how social media platforms have installed defences against hoaxes, Mr Shafiq Pontoh, chief strategic officer at Jakarta-based, data-driven strategic consulting firm Provetic, acknowledges that Indonesia today is “past the learning curve” on how to mitigate disinformation.

He said, however, that the country is not out of the woods.

Irresponsible individuals are playing catch-up, and have now begun using tactics such as flooding social media posts to discredit the posts of some in the political sphere in an attempt to make a quick buck.

Internet users in Indonesia have increased three-fold since 2013

Insiders say the controversy two months ago over whether Mr Gibran’s educational qualifications were fake, which prompted him and his alma mater, the Management Development Institute of Singapore (MDIS), to make public statements clarifying that his papers were legitimate, was the work of such buzzers.

What they do is first identify an individual or group whom they can profit from.

They then pick a post by the potential victim that they can target.

Next, they use their huge numbers of fake accounts to comment on this post to build negative sentiment.

Then, under a different name, these buzzers reach out to their victim to offer their “services” to counter the negativity by amplifying key messages or supportive words.

“Now is a time when an enormous amount of money is being spent. Buzzers (and their related) agencies want to squeeze money from all campaign teams. Obviously, the motive is profit, nothing to do with political ideology, or which presidential candidate they support,” said a social media analyst who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“What they do is make noise, provocation against certain targets, and then they offer services to counter these contents to the victims. In other words, they attack, then come to the rescue,” he added.

According to one of the presidential campaign teams, the going rate for buzzers can be around 100 million rupiah (S$8,500) a month. They are paid to pump out praise for a candidate and heap vitriol on his rivals, misleading genuine social media users on the popularity of a candidate.

The candidates themselves have vowed that they want a fair election, but each sings a different tune when it comes to the issue of buzzers.

Mr Anies has publicly stated he has never hired political buzzers, either during his run for Jakarta governor in 2017, or for the upcoming presidential election. Mr Prabowo’s team has said it would employ buzzers to defend him from slander. Meanwhile, Mr Ganjar has remained tight-lipped on the issue.

Buzzers first came to public attention in Indonesia about a decade ago, when X, formerly known as Twitter started to gain popularity, and politicians used them to sway public opinion.

They made their foray into politics during the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election, when they campaigned for Mr Widodo, who was then running for governorship.

Black campaigns – that use hoaxes and false narratives – emerged in the 2014 and 2019 presidential elections and involved the spread of disinformation, rumour-mongering and online harassment. For instance, in 2019, a doctored photo of a man wearing a communist commander outfit, described as the father of then-presidential candidate Mr Widodo, spread on Facebook.

Despite being a threat to democracy and high public awareness of their dirty tactics, buzzers are hard to identify and suppress because they can easily create new fake accounts if detected, say observers.

Complicating matters is Indonesia’s Internet defamation law. While creating and spreading fake news is illegal, holding social media accounts in false names is not, unless a real person is being impersonated.

There is also a sense that buzzers are condoned by the government, which is open about its use of buzzers to help fight fake news and hoaxes on the Internet. A job brochure from the presidential palace in 2022 asked for under-30 millennials who are experts in the world of social media debate, “able to keep secrets”, and “do not hate the government” to apply for the position of helping to spread information about official policies.

Whatsapp is the leading social media platform in Indonesia, followed by Instagram and Facebook

Acknowledging that disinformation could result in unfair elections, the government has set out ground rules for candidates in the coming election.

These include a new rule that bars presidential, vice-presidential and legislative candidates from using more than 20 social media accounts on each platform for campaign purposes. These accounts have to be registered with the authorities, so that the government can monitor if disinformation is being published.

Fake news is part of social media campaigning, and how the Indonesian electorate responds to such a challenge will test the maturity of young voters, said Mr David Hickey, executive director for Meltwater in Asia-Pacific.

No one group can tackle this challenge alone, and social media companies, together with political parties and electoral candidates, have a role to play, he said.

“Governments, too, must play their part in regulating and driving these conversations forward, so long as it doesn’t infringe on free speech and people’s right to an opinion,” added Mr Hickey.

Indonesia’s Ministry of Communications and Informatics has been regularly publishing on its website clarifications of fake news regarding the election. ST reported in 2023 that before the official campaigning period started, the ministry had requested that Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, take down more than 450 pieces of disinformation on Meta’s platforms.

To stay ahead of buzzers and prevent fake news from interfering with the election, social media companies have been stepping up their efforts.

Responding to queries from ST, a TikTok spokesman said the platform has been removing misinformation about civic and electoral processes in Indonesia. It has been working with government agencies to provide access to authoritative information through a dedicated election hub on TikTok.

“As we learn more, we do more, which is why we continually look for ways in which we can help maintain the integrity of elections through stronger policies and enforcement strategies,” the spokesman said.

Meta did not respond to queries from ST about the steps it is taking to counter disinformation related to the election, but referred to a post on its website on Nov 28, 2023, that touched on how it was planning for elections in 2024, including the one in Indonesia.

The company’s president of global affairs Nick Clegg said Meta has built a large independent fact-checking network, with nearly 100 partners around the world, to review and rate viral misinformation in more than 60 languages.

Dr Pang said that the issue of fake news in elections is deepening, both in terms of its proliferation and sophistication. She and other experts have observed the rise of more advanced pieces of disinformation from generative artificial intelligence, which processes large amounts of information and generates responses that can seem legitimate.

“Both candidates and voters must arm themselves with critical media and information literacy in their use and consumption of information on social media,” she said.

Despite these dangers, voters ST spoke to said that social media has improved their access to political discussions and helps inform their “gut feeling”, which they will rely on when casting their vote on Feb 14.

Ms Maria Ulfa, who runs a traditional Indonesian restaurant in West Jakarta’s Kedaung Kali Angke sub-district, relies solely on what she sees online, and has decided to vote for Mr Ganjar.

“Ganjar has all the ingredients required to be a president. He has the presidential look, character and has a sweet heart. When he meets people, he makes them happy. My gut feeling says he is the one,” said the 43-year-old mother of two.

A survey by the national newspaper Kompas conducted between Nov 29 and Dec 4, 2023, on how often voters use social media to seek information on the election found that 29.4 per cent of respondents did so at least several times a week. About 11 per cent of the respondents said they used social media for election-related content at least once a day.

Mr Uus Kuswara, 39, a resident of Kuningan in West Java, accesses YouTube and Tiktok to help him decide whom to support. He is particularly thankful for the political podcasts that have mushroomed since 2023, and which feature not only political pundits but also seasoned politicians including party chairmen, senior ministers and veteran MPs.

Short clips of these podcasts are uploaded on social media to entice listeners to tune in to the full episodes, which can go on for as long as two hours.

“They regularly spill insider information and make discussions very interesting,” Mr Uus said. He also follows the presidential candidates’ speeches and question-and-answer events organised by various groups such as the village heads association, think-tanks and universities, which are posted on YouTube.

He noted that of the three candidates, Mr Anies has appeared most frequently at these events, followed by Mr Ganjar, while Mr Prabowo was often a no-show.

Mr Yusral Sofyan Yusuf, 61, a contractor in the power industry, said the fast growth of political podcasts has made information flows more efficient and no longer the exclusive purview of the political elites.

The antics of the candidates online have made their messaging more palatable to some like Mr Angga Hermawan. The 31-year-old public relations professional is among those who enjoy Mr Prabowo’s gemoy dances.

“Anything related to Prabowo I like. Gemoy dances, I like seeing the footage as part of his speech,” he told ST.

“Prabowo knows what to do to continue what Jokowi has started. He has the same vision and mission as Jokowi,” said Mr Angga, referring to how Mr Prabowo has largely agreed to continuing President Widodo’s legacy.

But not everyone is won over by this gimmick. Unlike the thousands of Indonesians who have been sharing clips of Mr Prabowo’s gemoy dance, Mr Yusral does not find it to be engaging content.

“It is just not a right thing for him considering his age. He is forcing it,” Mr Yusral said.

There are also voters who are not on social media at all, such as air-conditioner serviceman Suwito Ruslan, 60.

When asked by ST how he would decide whom to vote for, the resident of Kebon Pala district in East Java said: “I hear friends and families talk about presidential candidates.”

He added: “I will make my decision at the polling booth.”