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Religious conservative narrative dominates social media spaces in Indonesia
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recent study by researchers from Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University (UIN) has found that religious conservative narratives have dominated online conversations, particularly on Twitter, in recent years in Indonesia, a country that has seen a growing use of social media and the rise of conservatism in society.
The research, conducted by the Center for the Study of Islam and Society’s (PPIM) Media and Religious Trends in Indonesia (MERIT) program, showed that conservative narratives accounted for 67 percent of the conversations about religious topics on Twitter, far higher than those of moderate narratives at 22.2 percent.
Narratives that held liberal views, meanwhile, accounted for 6.1 percent and Islamist perspectives 4.5 percent, according to the study, which combed through Twitter data between 2009 and 2019 and interviewed public figures and prominent social media users to test its initial findings.
The research defines conservative perspectives as a religious view that leans to the literal interpretation of Islam according to its early tradition. It also describes an Islamist perspective as originating in a strand of conservatism that seeks to establish an Islamic state through political means.
Conservative-leaning twitter hashtags tended to gain popularity among Twitter users, while neutral hashtags were also often co-opted by conservative users and therefore also tended to have conservative connotations despite their neutral origins, said lead researcher of the project, Iim Halimatussa’diyah.
This conservative narrative on social media tended to revolve around gender issues or the relationships between the government and society, she said.
Iim said that it was important to acknowledge that the religious conservative discourse was not a monolithic perspective and that Muslim identity in Indonesia could be fluid.
