Beating the Buzzers

A favourite pastime of Indonesian netizens when scrolling Twitter is ‘spot the buzzer’. They know that some of the posts on their timeline are the work of cyber troops – including influencers, ‘buzzers’ (i.e., fake account operators) and ‘bots’ (i.e., semi-automated robot accounts) – that try to influence public opinion on specific topics and manipulate conversations on social media. As the articles in this edition show, cyber troops have become increasingly common in Indonesia’s cybersphere, and so netizens have become accustomed to their presence and tactics. Yet, the use of cyber troops remains a secretive affair. No political actor will openly admit to employing cyber troops in order to sway public opinion in their favour by spreading disinformation and ‘trolling’ (provoking, insulting, or harassing) or ‘doxing’ (exposing private information with the purpose of slandering) opponents. The work of cyber troops is therefore not only shrouded in mystery, it also carries connotations of underhanded ‘dirty politics’.