Digital democracy: examining the impact of Instagram on election campaigns in Indonesia and Malaysia

One thing to note is the use of social media as political propaganda. The strong influence of social media has a wide impact on political discourse. Instagram is one of the social media platforms that is often used as a political campaign tool, especially during election season in Malaysia and Indonesia. The purpose of this study is to identify how Instagram is used as a campaign media platform in the Indonesian and Malaysian elections in 2024 and 2022. The method used is a qualitative descriptive study using library research. One of the theoretical approaches used in this research is the Five Functional Stages of Development model. Based on the research findings, there was a significant use of social media in Indonesia during the political campaign for the 2024 election, particularly in relation to the Prabowo-Gibran case. This is explained in the Prabowo Gibran identification model, which includes five aspects of the Five Functional Stages Development model: identification, legitimization, participation, penetration, and distribution. On the other hand, Malaysia is passive in terms of social media usage such as Instagram, but active in terms of TikTok campaigns.