Discourse on ‘Islam’ and ‘Kafir’ in 2019 Indonesia Presidential Election The Challenge of Democracy in the Digital Era

Abstract

The development of digital technology disrupts all aspects of people's lives. Digital technology facilitates the development of social media, a platform on which everyone can produce content to promote the right to freedom of expression. Therefore, at the beginning of its development, it is assumedthat it will improve the quality of democracy. However, reality shows some paradox, such as the political discourse is strongly influenced by new actors, called the influencers and they influence the voters strongly. One of the popular topics developed by influencers in the 2019 Indonesian presidential election are Islam and Kafir (unbelievers).The aim of this study is to examines the discourse of Islam and Kafir in Twitter and their impact on the development of democracy in Indonesia. The data was collected on 7 days Twitter dataset ( 3 days before election day, the election day, and 3 days after the election day). By using topic model and critical discourse analysis (CDA), it shows that the discourse of Kafir or the disbelief was used to mocking supporters of other candidates who were considered less Islamic. Interestingly, the socalled unbelieversupporters used „re- signification‟ as a way to attack the opponent. Thes tudy shows that both of candidates use Islamic discourse to get voter support. As a result, discourses of Islam and Kafircontain a lot of verbal violence, thathas the potential to reduce the quality of democracy in the digital era.