Rethinking Algorithmic Populism: Toward an Affective Algorithmic Populism Framework in Indonesian Digital Politics
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Published
Jul 10, 2026
Abstract
Ico Maly (2018, 2020) introduced the concept of algorithmic populism as a framework for understanding how populist claims are constructed through the operation of algorithms within digital platforms. However, most empirical studies underlying this concept originate from Western Europe and Latin America, where digital populism tends to be rage-driven, built on anger, confrontation, and narratives of hatred. In this regard, this article argues that this characterization is inadequate to explain the dynamics of digital populism in Indonesia, where affective mechanisms are based on humor, personal closeness, and relaxed, open performances. Empirically, this argument is anchored in the 2024 Indonesian presidential election, the country's first TikTok election, and specifically in Prabowo Subianto's Gemoy (roughly, cute or endearing) campaign, in which a previously confrontational strongman was rebranded through humor, warmth, and playful dance content that came to dominate engagement on the platform.Using a conceptual analysis approach using the theory adaptation strategy (Jaakkola, 2020) supported by a semi-systematic literature review (Snyder, 2019; Paul & Criado, 2020) with a transparent search protocol in four scientific databases (Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and SINTA) for the period 2014–2026, this article identifies three limitations of the existing framework: geographic bias, the assumption that negative emotions (anger) fuel algorithms, and the lack of cultural context. Therefore, this article proposes the development of a concept called Affective Algorithmic Populism. This development encompasses three dimensions that distinguish it from Western variants: positive affectivity, an open performative mode, and a cultural grammar in the form of an inclusive affective community. Finally, in the closing section, this article offers a research agenda for the development of algorithmic populism studies in the Global South.
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How to Cite
Fadillah, A. (2026) “Rethinking Algorithmic Populism: Toward an Affective Algorithmic Populism Framework in Indonesian Digital Politics”, Ranah Research : Journal of Multidisciplinary Research and Development, 8(4), pp. 2635-2650. doi: 10.38035/rrj.v8i4.2164.
References
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Benoot, C., Hannes, K., & Bilsen, J. (2016). The use of purposeful sampling in a qualitative evidence synthesis: A worked example on sexual adjustment to a cancer trajectory. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 16(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-016-0114-6.
Brady, W. J., Wills, J. A., Jost, J. T., Tucker, J. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2017). Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(28), 7313–7318. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618923114.
Bucher, T. (2018). If…Then: Algorithmic Power and Politics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190493028.001.0001.
Ceccobelli, D., & Mosca, L. (2024). Populism, political campaigning and digital media: The state of the art and some avenues for future research. In D. Lilleker, D. Jackson, B. Kalsnes, C. Mellado, F. Trevisan, & A. Veneti (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of political campaigning (hlm. 100–114). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003333326-10.
Cervi, L., & Divon, T. (2023). Playful activism: Memetic performances of Palestinian resistance in TikTok #Challenges. Social Media + Society, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231157607.
Cervi, L., Tejedor, S., & Blesa, F. G. (2023). TikTok and political communication: The latest frontier of politainment? A case study. Media and Communication, 11(2), 203–217. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i2.6390.
Cesarino, L. (2019). On digital populism in Brazil. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. https://polarjournal.org/2019/04/15/on-jair-bolsonaros-digital-populism/.
Cesarino, L. (2020). How social media affords populist politics: Remarks on liminality based on the Brazilian case. Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada, 59(1), 404–427. https://doi.org/10.1590/01031813686191620200410.
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Djumadin, Z. (2025). Digital populism and affective politics: The case of Prabowo Subianto's 'Gemoy' persona and its resonance with millennial and Gen-Z voters in Indonesia. Lex Localis – Journal of Local Self-Government, 23(11), 849–865. https://doi.org/10.52152/801942.
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Enli, Gunn. (2015). Mediated Authenticity: How the Media Constructs Reality. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1458-8.
Guinaudeau, B., Munger, K., & Votta, F. (2022). Fifteen seconds of fame: TikTok and the supply side of social video. Computational Communication Research, 4(2), 463–485. https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2022.2.004.GUIN.
Habibillah, E.R., & Hariyanto, D. (2026). Framing Prabowo’s ’Gemoy’ Campaign: National and International Media Perspectives. Jurnal Ilmiah LISKI (Lingkar Studi Komunikasi), 12(1). https://doi.org/10.25124/liski.v12i1.9187
Jaakkola, E. (2020). Designing conceptual articles: Four approaches. AMS Review, 10(1–2), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-020-00161-0.
Jalli, N., Unggraini, I. N., & Setianto, Y. P. (2025). How TikTok's visual politics shaped Indonesia's 2024 election. ISEAS Perspective, No. 2025/52. ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. https://www.iseas.edu.sg/articles-commentaries/iseas-perspective/2025-52.
Klinger, U., & Svensson, J. (2018). The end of media logics? On algorithms and agency. New Media & Society, 20(12), 4653–4670. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818779750.
Kompas. (2023, 27 Juli). "Pemilu TikTok" dan kompleksitas kampanye digital pada Pemilu 2024. Kompas.com. https://www.kompas.com/tren/read/2023/07/27/093233565/pemilu-tiktok-dan-kompleksitas-kampanye-digital-pada-pemilu-2024.
Kulau, F. (2024). TikTok, Instagram and presidential election: A study to understand how politainment in Indonesian political campaigns 2024. Informasi, 54(2), 164–176. https://doi.org/10.21831/informasi.v54i2.77889.
Lim, M. (2017). Freedom to hate: Social media, algorithmic enclaves, and the rise of tribal nationalism in Indonesia. Critical Asian Studies, 49(3), 411–427. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2017.1341188.
Lim, M. (2020). Algorithmic enclaves: Affective politics and algorithms in the neoliberal social media landscape. In M. Boler & E. Davis (Eds.), Affective politics of digital media: Propaganda by other means (hlm. 186–203). Routledge.
Lim, M. (2024). Social media and politics in Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press.
Lim, M. (2025). In curhat we unite (and divide): Scalable affective sociality, algorithmic politics, and social media in Indonesia. Indonesia, 119, 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1353/ind.2025.a961926.
Maly, I. (2018). Populism as a mediatized communicative relation: The birth of algorithmic populism (Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, No. 213). Tilburg University. https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/sites/default/files/download/TPCS_213_Maly.pdf.
Maly, I. (2020). Algorithmic populism and the datafication and gamification of the people by Flemish Interest in Belgium. Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada, 59(1), 444–468. https://doi.org/10.1590/01031813685881620200409.
Maly, I. (2022). Populism as a mediatized communicative relation: The birth of algorithmic populism. In C. W. Chun (Ed.), Applied linguistics and politics (hlm. 33–58). Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350098268.ch-002.
Medina Serrano, J. C., Papakyriakopoulos, O., & Hegelich, S. (2020). Dancing to the partisan beat: A first analysis of political communication on TikTok. In Proceedings of the 12th ACM Conference on Web Science (hlm. 257–266). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3394231.3397916.
Mietzner, M. (2015). Reinventing Asian populism: Jokowi's rise, democracy, and political contestation in Indonesia. East-West Center. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep06525.
Mietzner, M. (2020). Rival populisms and the democratic crisis in Indonesia: Chauvinists, Islamists and technocrats. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 74(4), 420–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2020.1725426.
Moffitt, B. (2016). The global rise of populism: Performance, political style, and representation. Stanford University Press.
Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39(4), 541–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x.
Papacharissi, Z. (2015). Affective publics: Sentiment, technology, and politics. Oxford University Press.
Paul, J., & Criado, A. R. (2020). The art of writing literature review: What do we know and what do we need to know? International Business Review, 29(4), 101717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101717.
Penn State University. (2022, 9 Desember). TikTok lowers barriers to virality, keeps tight control through algorithm. Penn State News. https://www.psu.edu/news/liberal-arts/story/tiktok-lowers-barriers-virality-keeps-tight-control-through-algorithm.
Radulescu, B.-G. (2025). The threat of algorithmic populism: Intelligence strategies for safeguarding democracy. Intelligence Info, 4(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.58679/II24680.
Rakatiwi, Y., & Sazali, H. (2024). Framing analysis of Anies Baswedan's political identity as an innovative campaign on TikTok. MUHARRIK: Jurnal Dakwah dan Sosial, 7(1), 95–112. https://doi.org/10.37680/muharrik.v7i1.5194.
Rodas-Coloma, A., Cabezas-González, M., Casillas-Martín, S., & Nevado-Batalla Moreno, P. (2026). Quality vs. populism in short-video political communication: A multimodal study of TikTok. Journalism and Media, 7(1), 46. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia7010046.
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039.
Tapsell, R. (2025, February 24). The great rebrand. Inside Indonesia, 158. https://www.insideindonesia.org/editions/edition-158-oct-dec-2024/the-great-rebrand
Templier, M., & Paré, G. (2015). A framework for guiding and evaluating literature reviews. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 37, 112–137. https://doi.org/10.17705/1cais.03706.
Tempo. (2024, 15 Januari). Efektifkah strategi calon presiden menggaet pemilih muda lewat TikTok? Tempo.co. https://www.tempo.co/politik/tiktok-calon-presiden-817331.
Torraco, R. J. (2016). Writing integrative literature reviews: Using the past and present to explore the future. Human Resource Development Review, 15(4), 404–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484316671606.
Van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & De Waal, M. (2018). The platform society: Public values in a connective world. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190889760.001.0001.
Van Raalte, A., Maeseele, P., & Phelan, S. (2021). Twitter as a right-wing populist's playground: The algorithmic populism of Dutch political party 'Forum voor Democratie' and leader Thierry Baudet during their political rise. Discourse, Context & Media, 44, 100549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2021.100549.
Yilmaz, I., Bachtiar, H., Smith, C., & Shakil, K. (2024). Fluctuating populism: Prabowo's everchanging populism across the Indonesian elections. Populism & Politics (P&P). European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS). https://doi.org/10.55271/pp0030.
Zulli, D., & Zulli, D. J. (2022). Extending the Internet meme: Conceptualizing technological mimesis and imitation publics on the TikTok platform. New Media & Society, 24(8), 1872–1890. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820983603.
Benoot, C., Hannes, K., & Bilsen, J. (2016). The use of purposeful sampling in a qualitative evidence synthesis: A worked example on sexual adjustment to a cancer trajectory. BMC Medical Research Methodology, 16(1), 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-016-0114-6.
Brady, W. J., Wills, J. A., Jost, J. T., Tucker, J. A., & Van Bavel, J. J. (2017). Emotion shapes the diffusion of moralized content in social networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(28), 7313–7318. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1618923114.
Bucher, T. (2018). If…Then: Algorithmic Power and Politics. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190493028.001.0001.
Ceccobelli, D., & Mosca, L. (2024). Populism, political campaigning and digital media: The state of the art and some avenues for future research. In D. Lilleker, D. Jackson, B. Kalsnes, C. Mellado, F. Trevisan, & A. Veneti (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of political campaigning (hlm. 100–114). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003333326-10.
Cervi, L., & Divon, T. (2023). Playful activism: Memetic performances of Palestinian resistance in TikTok #Challenges. Social Media + Society, 9(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1177/20563051231157607.
Cervi, L., Tejedor, S., & Blesa, F. G. (2023). TikTok and political communication: The latest frontier of politainment? A case study. Media and Communication, 11(2), 203–217. https://doi.org/10.17645/mac.v11i2.6390.
Cesarino, L. (2019). On digital populism in Brazil. PoLAR: Political and Legal Anthropology Review. https://polarjournal.org/2019/04/15/on-jair-bolsonaros-digital-populism/.
Cesarino, L. (2020). How social media affords populist politics: Remarks on liminality based on the Brazilian case. Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada, 59(1), 404–427. https://doi.org/10.1590/01031813686191620200410.
DataReportal, We Are Social, & Meltwater. (2025). Countries with the largest TikTok advertising audience as of October 2025 (in millions) [Graph]. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1299807/number-of-monthly-unique-tiktok-users/.
Djumadin, Z. (2025). Digital populism and affective politics: The case of Prabowo Subianto's 'Gemoy' persona and its resonance with millennial and Gen-Z voters in Indonesia. Lex Localis – Journal of Local Self-Government, 23(11), 849–865. https://doi.org/10.52152/801942.
Drone Emprit. (2024). Analisis TikTok capres-cawapres Pilpres 2024, periode 16–22 Januari 2024. Drone Emprit Academic. https://pers.droneemprit.id/analisis-tiktokcapres-cawapres-pilpres-2024/.
Enli, Gunn. (2015). Mediated Authenticity: How the Media Constructs Reality. https://doi.org/10.3726/978-1-4539-1458-8.
Guinaudeau, B., Munger, K., & Votta, F. (2022). Fifteen seconds of fame: TikTok and the supply side of social video. Computational Communication Research, 4(2), 463–485. https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2022.2.004.GUIN.
Habibillah, E.R., & Hariyanto, D. (2026). Framing Prabowo’s ’Gemoy’ Campaign: National and International Media Perspectives. Jurnal Ilmiah LISKI (Lingkar Studi Komunikasi), 12(1). https://doi.org/10.25124/liski.v12i1.9187
Jaakkola, E. (2020). Designing conceptual articles: Four approaches. AMS Review, 10(1–2), 18–26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-020-00161-0.
Jalli, N., Unggraini, I. N., & Setianto, Y. P. (2025). How TikTok's visual politics shaped Indonesia's 2024 election. ISEAS Perspective, No. 2025/52. ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute. https://www.iseas.edu.sg/articles-commentaries/iseas-perspective/2025-52.
Klinger, U., & Svensson, J. (2018). The end of media logics? On algorithms and agency. New Media & Society, 20(12), 4653–4670. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444818779750.
Kompas. (2023, 27 Juli). "Pemilu TikTok" dan kompleksitas kampanye digital pada Pemilu 2024. Kompas.com. https://www.kompas.com/tren/read/2023/07/27/093233565/pemilu-tiktok-dan-kompleksitas-kampanye-digital-pada-pemilu-2024.
Kulau, F. (2024). TikTok, Instagram and presidential election: A study to understand how politainment in Indonesian political campaigns 2024. Informasi, 54(2), 164–176. https://doi.org/10.21831/informasi.v54i2.77889.
Lim, M. (2017). Freedom to hate: Social media, algorithmic enclaves, and the rise of tribal nationalism in Indonesia. Critical Asian Studies, 49(3), 411–427. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.2017.1341188.
Lim, M. (2020). Algorithmic enclaves: Affective politics and algorithms in the neoliberal social media landscape. In M. Boler & E. Davis (Eds.), Affective politics of digital media: Propaganda by other means (hlm. 186–203). Routledge.
Lim, M. (2024). Social media and politics in Southeast Asia. Cambridge University Press.
Lim, M. (2025). In curhat we unite (and divide): Scalable affective sociality, algorithmic politics, and social media in Indonesia. Indonesia, 119, 39–57. https://doi.org/10.1353/ind.2025.a961926.
Maly, I. (2018). Populism as a mediatized communicative relation: The birth of algorithmic populism (Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies, No. 213). Tilburg University. https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/sites/default/files/download/TPCS_213_Maly.pdf.
Maly, I. (2020). Algorithmic populism and the datafication and gamification of the people by Flemish Interest in Belgium. Trabalhos em Linguística Aplicada, 59(1), 444–468. https://doi.org/10.1590/01031813685881620200409.
Maly, I. (2022). Populism as a mediatized communicative relation: The birth of algorithmic populism. In C. W. Chun (Ed.), Applied linguistics and politics (hlm. 33–58). Bloomsbury Academic. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350098268.ch-002.
Medina Serrano, J. C., Papakyriakopoulos, O., & Hegelich, S. (2020). Dancing to the partisan beat: A first analysis of political communication on TikTok. In Proceedings of the 12th ACM Conference on Web Science (hlm. 257–266). ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3394231.3397916.
Mietzner, M. (2015). Reinventing Asian populism: Jokowi's rise, democracy, and political contestation in Indonesia. East-West Center. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep06525.
Mietzner, M. (2020). Rival populisms and the democratic crisis in Indonesia: Chauvinists, Islamists and technocrats. Australian Journal of International Affairs, 74(4), 420–438. https://doi.org/10.1080/10357718.2020.1725426.
Moffitt, B. (2016). The global rise of populism: Performance, political style, and representation. Stanford University Press.
Mudde, C. (2004). The populist zeitgeist. Government and Opposition, 39(4), 541–563. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-7053.2004.00135.x.
Papacharissi, Z. (2015). Affective publics: Sentiment, technology, and politics. Oxford University Press.
Paul, J., & Criado, A. R. (2020). The art of writing literature review: What do we know and what do we need to know? International Business Review, 29(4), 101717. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101717.
Penn State University. (2022, 9 Desember). TikTok lowers barriers to virality, keeps tight control through algorithm. Penn State News. https://www.psu.edu/news/liberal-arts/story/tiktok-lowers-barriers-virality-keeps-tight-control-through-algorithm.
Radulescu, B.-G. (2025). The threat of algorithmic populism: Intelligence strategies for safeguarding democracy. Intelligence Info, 4(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.58679/II24680.
Rakatiwi, Y., & Sazali, H. (2024). Framing analysis of Anies Baswedan's political identity as an innovative campaign on TikTok. MUHARRIK: Jurnal Dakwah dan Sosial, 7(1), 95–112. https://doi.org/10.37680/muharrik.v7i1.5194.
Rodas-Coloma, A., Cabezas-González, M., Casillas-Martín, S., & Nevado-Batalla Moreno, P. (2026). Quality vs. populism in short-video political communication: A multimodal study of TikTok. Journalism and Media, 7(1), 46. https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia7010046.
Snyder, H. (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of Business Research, 104, 333–339. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039.
Tapsell, R. (2025, February 24). The great rebrand. Inside Indonesia, 158. https://www.insideindonesia.org/editions/edition-158-oct-dec-2024/the-great-rebrand
Templier, M., & Paré, G. (2015). A framework for guiding and evaluating literature reviews. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 37, 112–137. https://doi.org/10.17705/1cais.03706.
Tempo. (2024, 15 Januari). Efektifkah strategi calon presiden menggaet pemilih muda lewat TikTok? Tempo.co. https://www.tempo.co/politik/tiktok-calon-presiden-817331.
Torraco, R. J. (2016). Writing integrative literature reviews: Using the past and present to explore the future. Human Resource Development Review, 15(4), 404–428. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484316671606.
Van Dijck, J., Poell, T., & De Waal, M. (2018). The platform society: Public values in a connective world. Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190889760.001.0001.
Van Raalte, A., Maeseele, P., & Phelan, S. (2021). Twitter as a right-wing populist's playground: The algorithmic populism of Dutch political party 'Forum voor Democratie' and leader Thierry Baudet during their political rise. Discourse, Context & Media, 44, 100549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2021.100549.
Yilmaz, I., Bachtiar, H., Smith, C., & Shakil, K. (2024). Fluctuating populism: Prabowo's everchanging populism across the Indonesian elections. Populism & Politics (P&P). European Center for Populism Studies (ECPS). https://doi.org/10.55271/pp0030.
Zulli, D., & Zulli, D. J. (2022). Extending the Internet meme: Conceptualizing technological mimesis and imitation publics on the TikTok platform. New Media & Society, 24(8), 1872–1890. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444820983603.