Escaping social media: the end of netizen’s political polarization between Islamists and nationalists in Indonesia?

Abstract

The current article explains why netizens are escaping the political polarization observed in their activities on social media during the 2014 and 2019 Indonesian presidential elections. The research data were obtained from in-depth interviews with a number of netizens who were activists on social media and engaged in political polarization. The existing political polarization had been bolstered by netizen’s activities that were rampant across various echo chambers, which were established and driven by ideological and affective elements. Netizens succeeded in escaping the existing political polarization on account of promises broken by the pair of presidential-vice presidential candidates they supported and due to a natural drive of the election being over. Nevertheless, this article reveals that netizen’s escape from political polarization on social media does not necessarily suggest the end of the existing political polarization. The present study found that netizen’s political polarization on social media has shifted to political polarization awareness and latent political polarization. This clarifies that the existing political polarization has simply evolved into a new political polarization. The findings in this research may have implications on factors that threaten democracy in the general election system or new relations of political communication in the era of new media.