On @israellovesindonesia and Israel’s growing online campaign in Indonesia |
In recent months, as I continued investigating how pro-Israel narratives are being systematically injected into Indonesia’s social media ecosystem, I encountered yet another account demanding scrutiny. Operating alongside other digital efforts to sanitize Israel’s record, this account advances normalization not through debate or diplomacy, but through relentless repetition, emotional manipulation and the strategic erasure of context. The Instagram and Facebook account @israellovesindonesia is one such example.
At first glance, the account appears marginal. Active since August 2020, it has published more than 1,600 posts on Instagram but attracted only about 1,114 followers. Engagement is thin; likes rarely exceed 50, and comments are often sparse. When discussions do surface, many Indonesian users openly accuse the account of being a “buzzer,” shorthand for coordinated propaganda. Its Facebook counterpart, with roughly 1,000 followers, shows similarly limited reach.
But influence does not always announce itself through scale. Often, it works through persistence.
What @israellovesindonesia seeks to do is not to persuade Indonesians in a single moment, but to gradually dull resistance. The account relentlessly promotes positive news about Israel from mainstream outlets, highlights Israeli advances in agriculture and technology, and repeatedly urges Indonesia to sign what it........