Indonesia

Twitter released a dataset containing a network of 795 accounts promoting pro-Indonesian Government narratives concerning the West Papuan independence movement. Papua is a highly politicised region with contested and unresolved legacies of violence between indigenous peoples and the Indonesian state, including the separatist Free Papua Movement (OPM) and protests against ethnic discrimination. This network’s narratives targeted Indonesians and international audiences by imitating support for Papua using hashtags such as #FreeWestPapua. This hashtag refers to the Free West Papua independence movement, and was used by the network to spread counternarratives, potentially to those who might be using the hashtag to support the independence movement. Notably, the dataset typically referred to ‘West Papua’ rather than the Indonesian nomenclature ‘Papua’, suggesting that it targeted international discourse on the region. The network also linked to websites that appeared sympathetic to Papuan independence and other issues but promulgated pro-Indonesian Government narratives. Posting patterns suggest automation and inauthenticity. Tweet activity corresponded with unfolding unrest in Papua, spiking during the August–September 2019 Papua protests, which drew international attention. Many of the most highly engaged accounts in this network promoted themselves as reliable sources of information on Papua. However, grammatical errors in their biographies suggest that they were translated into English to appeal to international audiences.