Indonesian Netizens’ Impoliteness Toward Government Loudspeaker Policies: A Cyberpragmatic Approach

The issue of politeness on social media has become increasingly important and requires attention from various stakeholders. This is crucial due to the rise in impolite behavior by netizens when commenting online. This study aims to describe the forms of impoliteness in comments on the guidelines for the use of loudspeakers in mosques, a policy issued by the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs. A qualitative approach was employed, with data consisting of impolite comments responding to the policy. The data were drawn from netizens' reactions to the Ministry’s announcement. Data analysis utilized the referential and pragmatic matching methods, supported by Leech’s (2014) theory of impoliteness and Yus’ (2011) cyberpragmatics framework. The findings revealed that impolite comments regarding the loudspeaker policy were manifested in four main forms: 42.5% as deviations from the maxim of wisdom, 27.5% as deviations from the maxim of politeness, 15% as deviations from the maxim of agreement, and 15% as deviations from the maxim of sympathy. These findings serve as a basis for evaluating government policies and could also be incorporated into educational programs on politeness, particularly at the elementary and secondary school levels, in the context of today’s multimodal communication environment.