Paper short abstract:

This paper aims to tie the studies of computational propaganda to studies of privatized violence in Global South. Tying the notion of "state of disorder" and "algorithmic blacbox", I propose "algorithmic disorder" by examining mobilization of cybertroops in Indonesia by political/economic actors.

Paper long abstract:

This paper seeks to examine the mobilization of cybertroops--known as "political buzzers" in vernaculars--by locating it in the multiplicity of concepts of disorder: the concept of disorder as a way of understanding violence and the state in Indonesia; and disorder in the concept of algorithmic blackbox as a way of understanding the opacity and secrecy of social media platform mechanisms. Enaged in political trolling and cyber harassment as one of cybertroops' modus operandi, this paper attempts to place political buzzers in the historical trajectory of the role of non-state apparatus in state-sponsored mobilization of violence. This paper frames various political buzzer digital attacks as part of mobilizing and normalizing violence—this time in cyberplace. This normalization of violence ties to the concept of algorithmic blackbox and the concept of atmosphere, which allows political buzzers to construct an atmosphere of fear: apart from digital attacks, they are also able to manipulate algorithms and monopolize the public's sense of place on social media platforms. This public sense of place is built through the ability of platform users on certain social media to relate their subjectivity to others in that one platform. Based on ethnographic research during the 2017 Jakarta election and ethnographic interviews in 2021 during the pandemic, this paper proposes the notion of "algorithmic disorder" by recognizing cybertroops as a twilight institution in the context of public and state relations in Indonesia, similar to various other non-state violence apparatuses in the Global South, within context of algorithmic black box.