Digital media and the transformation of Indonesian politics: Participation, polarization, identity, and policy

This review examines how digital media have transformed Indonesian politics by reshaping political participation, polarization, identity mobilization, policymaking, and state power. It responds to a growing but fragmented literature by synthesizing studies published between 2019 and 2025 and situating them within longer debates on Reformasi-era democratization, media power, and democratic backsliding. The review shows that digital platforms have widened channels for youth activism, opposition communication, environmental advocacy, and civic deliberation. At the same time, algorithmic visibility, influencer economies, buzzers, and identity-based mobilization have intensified disinformation, sectarian tension, and distrust in institutions. Policy debates have also become mediatized, with public sentiment circulating rapidly through X/Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp, and online news portals. The analysis further highlights the paradox of democratic digitalization: the same infrastructures that expand participation can also enable surveillance, legal intimidation, platform manipulation, and computational propaganda. The article contributes a conceptual framework linking political elites, platform infrastructures, digital intermediaries, and ordinary citizens, and identifies future research priorities on AI-driven campaigning, data governance, ethical digital research, and the effects of the revised ITE Law and Personal Data Protection Law on Indonesia's digital public sphere.