Indonesia Election Result Caused Riots: Fueled By Hatred, Fake News And Social MPosted by Eyerys on May 23rd, 2019 The proliferation of fake news and hatred in social media platforms and online media didn't end after Indonesia's general elections were held on 17 April 2019. At that time, the country had its a simultaneous parliamentary and presidential elections, considered the first in the modern Indonesian history, with over 190 million eligible voters and 16 parties. With the results of the election concluded that Joko "Jokowi" Widodo to be re-elected as Indonesia's president after defeating former general Prabowo Subianto, not everyone was happy with the outcome. It started on Tuesday night, May 21st, 2019, where chaos unfolded after protesters by supporters of Prabowo Subianto who ran late into the night, led to riot and violent clash with police officers around Central Jakarta. The next morning when many Indonesians woke up, they were in shock to know about the incident, and spoke out on social media, leading to a number of trending hashtags. Some of the hashtags include: #TangkapPRABOWO (#ArrestPRABOWO), which are mostly from netizens blasting the retired general for the chaos caused by him refusing to accept his defeat; and #saveindonesia which was surfaced by those who expressed their gratitude to members of the police who have been safeguarding the capital for several days, during the fasting of Ramadan and fears of unrest.  May 22nd was the peak day. Throughout the days until that day, tens of thousands of security personnel have been deployed around the larger Jakarta, with most are concentrated around government offices related to the election, such as the General Election Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu). Roads around those buildings where barricaded by razor wire to hold off protesters from entering the surrounding area. Until 22 May 2019, the riot has resulted to the deaths of 6 and over 200 injured. Like it? Share it! More by this author |