#Kamitidaktakut - Revisit the Truth of Security on Social Media after the Surabaya Blast

Ganesh Cintika Putri, Shafira Elnanda Yasmine

2018

Abstract

Several hours after a bomb blast in Surabaya, the internet was flooded by the hashtag #kamitidaktakut (we are not afraid) and #surabayaorawedi (Surabaya is not afraid). International media claimed that the attack was the worst in a decade suffered by Indonesia, highlighting the involvement of women and children as the attackers. The Indonesian government was urged of the necessity to impose a Terrorism Law even though the draft received criticism due to the distortion of human rights values. In such circumstances, the public displays a different response as depicted in social media, stating that the public is not afraid. The research question proposed is ‘How does the public, as the targeted victim of terrorism, offer an alternative narrative when responding to a recent terror act in Surabaya?’ We employed post-truth as the main perspective to analyse the issue. In the post-truth era, objective reality is no longer relevant. Instead of being sensed, community and information exchanges in social interaction play a great role in truth construction. Social media has become a platform for truth contestation. This article argues that the public’s engagement in social media shows the citizen’s spontaneous effort to combat the feeling of being terrorised by considering the attack to be irrelevant. The data was collected through observations on internet platforms and through a literature review. The conclusion reached was that while the government signifies the ‘state paranoia’ by imposing a controversial counter-terrorism policy, the public had succeeded in delivering the message that they are not afraid, thus rendering the attack insignificant.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Putri G. and Yasmine S. (2018). #Kamitidaktakut - Revisit the Truth of Security on Social Media after the Surabaya Blast.In Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs - Volume 1: ICoCSPA, ISBN 978-989-758-393-3, pages 247-254. DOI: 10.5220/0008819902470254

in Bibtex Style

@conference{icocspa18,
author={Ganesh Cintika Putri and Shafira Elnanda Yasmine},
title={#Kamitidaktakut - Revisit the Truth of Security on Social Media after the Surabaya Blast},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs - Volume 1: ICoCSPA,},
year={2018},
pages={247-254},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0008819902470254},
isbn={978-989-758-393-3},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF

JO - Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Contemporary Social and Political Affairs - Volume 1: ICoCSPA,
TI - #Kamitidaktakut - Revisit the Truth of Security on Social Media after the Surabaya Blast
SN - 978-989-758-393-3
AU - Putri G.
AU - Yasmine S.
PY - 2018
SP - 247
EP - 254
DO - 10.5220/0008819902470254