Dr Jemma Purdey is the co-host of the Talking Indonesia podcast. The new instalment, ‘Social Media, Politics and the Freedom to Hate’, is now available. 

The Jakarta gubernatorial election, held earlier this year, was perhaps the most divisive and bitterly fought campaign seen in modern Indonesian politics. Social media and the internet played a large role in the campaign, which was characterised by racism and sectarianism. But how much can we blame the internet for the bitterness of the campaign and how much is it explained by Indonesia’s conservative turn more generally? How did technology impact on this election? Are we seeing a new platform for organisation and political activism in Indonesia, based on a freedom to hate? – Indonesia at Melbourne

Dr Purdey is an Indonesian studies scholar, with a particular interest in political biography and ethnic minorities. She is Research Fellow in the Faculty of Arts and the Australia Indonesia Centre at Monash University. Dr Purdey has published on Indonesian politics and contemporary history and about Australia’s relationship with Indonesia. She is sole editor of Knowing Indonesia: Intersections of Self, Discipline and Nation (Monash University Publishing, Clayton Vic., 2012) and co-editor with Antje Missbach of Linking people: Connections and encounters between Australians and Indonesians (Regiospectra, Berlin, 2015).