Deepfakes and Disinformation: New Threats to Democracy and Information Security in Indonesia

Abstrak

This study examines deepfake enabled disinformation as a hybrid threat to democracy and information security in Indonesia. The study synthesizes 30 academic studies and 12 policy or institutional reports published between 2019 and 2026 using a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) guided by PRISMA 2020, combining thematic synthesis and policy document analysis. The findings identify five interrelated themes: technological affordances of synthetic media, selective belief and partisan amplification, trust erosion and democratic legitimacy, cyber enabled information security risks, and regulatory gaps in Indonesia. Deepfake harm does not stem solely from technical realism but emerges through interactions with political bias, weak verification literacy, platform algorithms, institutional distrust, and fragmented governance. In electoral settings, synthetic content can distort public opinion, damage candidates, weaken confidence in election bodies, and create the liar’s dividend, in which authentic evidence may be dismissed as fabricated. Its security implications include identity impersonation, social engineering, institutional spoofing, and evidence manipulation. The study proposes the Democratic Information Security Resilience Framework, connecting threat actors, content forms, amplification pathways, vulnerability conditions, impact mechanisms, and resilience strategies. The findings highlight the need for coordinated governance involving technical detection, content provenance, platform accountability, electoral safeguards, data protection, public literacy, rapid institutional response, and democratic accountability.

Kata kunci

• Deepfake
• Disinformation
• Democracy
• Information Security
• Indonesia