Indonesia uses online disinformation campaigns to discredit critics by labeling them as “foreign agents”

A new Amnesty International report details how the administration of Indonesia’s Prabowo Subianto launches coordinated disinformation campaigns and frames civil society actors as ‘foreign agents’ to muzzle critics.

Since President Prabowo Subianto took office in Indonesia in October 2024, state and state-aligned actors have launched coordinated disinformation attacks targeting critics, Amnesty International said in a new report.

Titled “Building Up Imaginary Enemies,” the 160-page report details how these actors weaponized online campaigns during the administration’s first 18 months, systematically portraying human rights defenders and critics as ‘foreign agents.’

Amnesty warned that this “harmful and stigmatizing” strategy is actively consolidating authoritarian practices in Indonesia. Rather than a sharp break from the past, the watchdog noted that Prabowo’s presidency deepens a repressive trajectory that first gathered pace under his predecessor, President Jokowi.

According to the report, state officials routinely weaponize the ‘foreign agent’ trope to suppress dissent, discredit critics, and shield themselves from scrutiny. Whether deployed through public rhetoric or coordinated online campaigns, these allegations serve to delegitimize civil society, human rights activism, and independent journalism while deflecting attention from substantive grievances.

A frequent target of this smear tactic is Andrie Yunus, deputy coordinator of the human rights organization KontraS and a vocal critic of Indonesia’s increasing militarization. On March 12, 2026, Andrie was severely burned in a brutal acid attack in Jakarta. This physical assault followed a year of coordinated online disinformation dating back to March 2025, when an account affiliated with President Prabowo’s Gerindra party began circulating a video labeling Andrie and other activists as ’foreign agents’ trying to weaken the military. The video was filmed during their peaceful protests against revisions to the military law, which permits active-duty personnel to hold civilian government roles.

Following the assault on Andrie, the online attacks did not let up, with anonymous social media accounts claiming he staged the attack for foreign funds. A subsequent investigation into the assault led to the arrest of four military officers from the Indonesian Strategic Intelligence Agency, directly linking the state’s security apparatus to the attack. 

Beyond being stigmatized, being labeled as a foreign agent could land accused individuals behind bars. Under Indonesia’s newly enforced Criminal Code, individuals accused of “entering into relations with persons or organizations domiciled abroad” to “overthrow or take over the government” can face up to 10 years’ imprisonment.

Such practices are not isolated; the head of state himself utilizes them, journalists quoted in the report said. “If Prabowo cannot explain or respond to something, he labels people criticizing him or his government as ‘foreign agents’. He has been building up imaginary enemies in people’s minds,” a senior journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, told Amnesty.

OCCRP contacted both the Indonesian minister of state secretariat and the presidential office for comment on the allegations in the report, but received no response by the time of publication.

The report outlines four distinct disinformation campaigns. Three of these involved social media accounts allegedly belonging to at least 63 military-affiliated entities. These campaigns targeted human rights defenders protesting revisions to the Military Law, participants in the ‘Indonesia Gelap’ protests that began in February 2025, and the media outlet Tempo. The fourth campaign targeted the Centre of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS).

While the allegation that an organization or individual is a foreign agent was frequently hurled without any supporting evidence, a common pattern emerged in more elaborate online allegations. To construct these “elaborate conspiracy claims,” the campaigns frequently weaponized decontextualized references to international partnerships, cross-border solidarity, or donor relationships. This allowed actors to frame organizations receiving foreign funding as having covert mandates to destabilize and undermine Indonesia.

This tactic was deployed against Tempo. In the campaign against the outlet, a viral TikTok video combined an edited excerpt of a speech given by President Prabowo, in which he warned citizens to be vigilant against “foreign forces who always want to divide Indonesia,” with decontextualized references to Tempo’s Media Development Investment Fund. The video stitched these elements together to frame the outlet as a foreign agent, offering no evidence that the fund compromised its independence. It concluded: “It is abundantly clear that Tempo is a foreign element wrapped in the mask of media independence.”