W

hat makes this year'€™s election different from the previous one five years ago? The answer is the larger use of social media outlets such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

Approaching the July 9 presidential election, both the presidential tickets of Joko '€œJokowi'€ Widodo-Jusuf Kalla and Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa have used social media to share their views, update supporters on their weekly activities as well as influence first-time voters or swing voters.

Recently, many Twitter users have changed their profile pictures to show their support for a candidate, posting their pictures with '€œNumber 1'€ for Prabowo'€™s camp or '€œNumber 2'€ for Jokowi'€™s camp.

But this week, people'€™s attention has been focused on an incident where activist and playwright Ratna Sarumpaet was accused of bullying Time correspondent Yenni Kwok.

Ratna posted her comment on Twitter on Yenni'€™s report titled '€œThis Indonesian Nazi video is one of the worst pieces of political campaigning ever'€, published by the magazine on June 25. The video was part of Prabowo'€™s campaign material and was made by musician Ahmad Dhani.

In her comment, Ratna revealed the journalist'€™s personal details and posted the latter'€™s child'€™s picture as well as accusing Yenni of fabricating a survey by CNN.

Yenni demanded that Ratna delete her tweets. '€œBut stealing a FB photo of me & my kid and stating where I lived before is beyond bullying, @RatnaSpaet. Delete it or I will make a report,'€ she wrote on her own account @yennikwok.

Yenni said she would file a report to the police on Ratna'€™s racist slur on Twitter, although Ratna said she had deleted her posts. The spat immediately sparked public outrage.

Apparently, the music video itself caused an international uproar as news outlets in the West deemed it as promoting Nazism.

In the video, a rip-off of the British band Queen'€™s classic hit '€œWe Will Rock You'€, Dhani dons black paramilitary attire and holds a golden Garuda '€” Indonesia'€™s national emblem '€” which looks like the German imperial eagle.

German news weekly Der Spiegel pointed out that Dhani'€™s military costume was similar to the uniform worn by SS commander Heinrich Himmler, comparing photos of the two in a photo gallery.

Queen guitarist Brian May tweeted: '€œOf course this is completely unauthorized by us.'€

When the video was first uploaded on Prabowo'€™s official Facebook page, the presidential candidate thanked Dhani and the other performers in the video.

Dhani, who is partly Jewish, said he had been misunderstood.

'€œIf I wear a Star of David then regular folks will call me a Zionist and when I wear a Nazi uniform then these same folks will call me a fascist ['€¦] Once a simpleton, always a simpleton,'€ he tweeted to his 1.35 million followers on Twitter.

A spokesman for Prabowo'€™s campaign team, Tantowi Yahya, said the team had nothing to do with the video. '€œThat'€™s purely his [Dhani'€™s] creativity,'€ the spokesman said.

In another incident, irresponsible parties deliberately produced fake reports on a recent survey that Prabowo-Hatta was trumping Jokowi-Kalla in the popularity stakes, with 52 percent of respondents supporting the former to win over the latter'€™s 41 percent.

US polling company Gallup '€” the name of which was used in the survey '€” denied the report, which appeared on CNN online.

'€œ[The] Prabowo Subianto prediction [was] fake and not released by Gallup, Inc., headquartered in Washington, D.C.,'€ Gallup global communications director Johnathan Tozer said in an email to The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

CNN pulled the post from its website. '€œThis iReport has been removed because it was flagged by the community and found to be in violation of the iReport Community Guidelines and Terms of Use,'€ CNN stated.

Since social media was created as a mobile-based application, it is much easier for people to check updates through their gadgets '€” and it'€™s so easy to abuse.

In Ratna'€™s case, uploading a minor'€™s picture '€” though it was deleted afterward '€” during a sensitive election campaign period and spreading around someone'€™s personal details could be seen as an act to endanger that person.

It is definitely a breach of privacy.

Smear campaigns are rampant in cyberspace with the perpetrators hiding behind anonymous accounts. However, it is not easy to deal with social media, even if we have the Electronic Transaction and Information Law, which includes defamation. The General Elections Commission (KPU) has said it cannot legally control election campaigning on social media.

It is too late to deal with social media control for this year'€™s election. But the next government, especially the KPU, could act on the issue and perhaps move to revise the Elections Law, to minimize the abuse of social media in election season and to have the perpetrators punished accordingly.

Social media can make or break someone'€™s life so we must use it with full responsibility, not cowardly hide behind anonymous accounts while we verbally attack others.

The author is a staff writer with The Jakarta Post.