Promoting the Growth of Digital Economy through #BijakBersosmed

"Because she spread fake accusation that the incident experienced by the mother and child persecution was fabricated, I blocked this college friend of mine from = my account," said Yuliani, a national media journalist on April the 30th.

Yuliani was upset with her friend and decided to end their friendship on Facebook. The reason was that the friend often spread false information and hate speech on her social media account. In fact, she often commented on what Yuliani uploaded to her wall.

The conflicts in social media became more prevalent recently. They are not only triggered by differences in political orientation, but also by things related to choices in life: whether to be a working mother or a housewife. In fact, trivial issues such as favoritism toward actors/actresses can also trigger conflicts.

According to Enda Nasution, the Coordinator of the movement “Bijak Bersosmed” (which translates to Proper Usage of Social Media), the dispute between users of social media is due to differences in their background. Users do not interact face-to-face, Enda says, making misinterpretation or misunderstanding likely to occur and to develop into conflicts.

In Indonesia, social media users have grown sporadically in line with the development of communication technology. Based on the survey conducted by the Association of Internet Service Providers Indonesia (APJII) in 2017, the number of internet users in Indonesia had reached 143.26 million people, who came from different demographic and psychographic backgrounds.

The number of social media users is directly proportional to the number of internet users in the world. Quoted from We Are Social 2018, the number of Facebook users in Indonesia is the fourth largest in the world, with 130 million accounts or six percent of the total accounts in Facebook. In fact, Indonesia has become a country with the largest number of social media users in Southeast Asia.

This large number of internet and social media users in Indonesia should constitute the capital of a digital-based economic movement.

"We are lucky the digital economy is really happening in Indonesia," said Enda.

In the Indonesian digital market, Enda said, there had been a “flow circle” or economic turnaround with some parties making the content and some others running economic activities, bringing them together in buying and selling transactions.

According to Enda, this digital market requires a safe and comfortable platform, which is established by spreading positive content on social media and avoiding negative content like fake news and hate speech.

Enda invited social media users through #BijakBersosmed Movement to use social media properly. Users are encouraged to behave wisely, not let themselves to be easily provoked emotionally, not easily angered, and to hold on to good principles of creating and spreading content.

"Because many people do manipulation on social media and spread hateful material," Enda recommends social media users to think ahead of time before posting comments or sharing anything.

The potential of this digital economy should be used to reduce the interregional gap in Indonesia and to help the country catch up with others. Instead of providing platform for verbal conflicts, social media should be used to exchange constructive ideas. As stated by President Joko Widodo last year, Indonesians should not let themselves to be immersed in issues that only waste their energy, such as hoax.

"They (the developed countries) have talked about things like hyper load, space-X, Tesla and we are still trapped in trivial debates, blaming, talking down on each other, defaming others," said Jokowi end of May last year, quoted from Cabinet Secretariat’s official website.

Digital Economy Potentials

The role of information and communication technology is key to connect people and promote their innovative and productive behavior, which will lead to an improved quality of life, increased competitiveness and economic modernization, which will in turn reduce economic and social inequality as well as poverty. These opportunities make the digital economy as a way to tackle regional disparities in Indonesia.

According to the data from the Ministry of Industry, Indonesia has a chance to develop the digital economy during the demographic dividend it will experience. By 2030, the population of productive age is above 60 percent with a contribution of 27 percent to the GDP. The increase in the number of the middle income class to reach 135 million each of whom is predicted to earn a net income amounting to above USD 3,600 per annum will constitute a segment of dominant consumers for e-commerce.

The same source of data also shows that out of the seven “unicorns” or major startup companies in ASEAN, four are in Indonesia. Therefore, the government prepares various programs and policies that can support digital economy. This includes policies on funding, taxation, consumer protection, education and human resources, logistics system, communication infrastructure, cyber security, as well as the establishment of the executive management.

To address inequality in digital economy, the government has been building telecommunication infrastructure, especially in the most front, least privileged and most outer areas (referred to as the 3Ts areas) in Indonesia. The government aims at constructing   5,000 BTS in areas that telecommunications companies avoid because of business-related disadvantages.

The government built Palapa Ring to further connect all regions in Indonesia with fast internet connection. The Ministry of Communications and Informatics divides the Palapa Ring into three packages: The West, Central and East packages. A submarine fiber optic cable of 1226 km will be laid in western area, while both ground and submarine cable of 166 km will be laid in central area, and the eastern zone will be connected with optical cable of 5,681 km both laid on the ground and under the sea.

To reduce the gap in digital-economic among regions, infrastructure development should be supported by positive habits using social media. The session in Indonesia Development Forum 2018 with the  sub-theme on How to Utilize Regional Economic Potentials to Promote Regional Development  will provide a forum to exchange ideas on how to maximize the potentials of digital economy to promote regional development. **