When Mockery Becomes Strategy: The Depoliticization of Public Dissent Through AI-Generated Satirical Content in the Indonesian Algorithmic Public Sphere Cahayani Yogaswari
Universitas Pembangunan Nasional Veteran Jakarta
Abstract
The strategic co-optation of AI-generated satirical content by political figures represents a growing yet largely overlooked challenge to democratic public discourse. In Indonesia, the case of Minister Bahlil Lahadalia illustrates this dynamic: netizen-produced AI content, including dancing videos, absurdist memes, and the viral song Mas Bahlil Ganteng, originally created as political criticism, was openly embraced by the minister and his party apparatus, gradually converting public dissent into entertainment and political mockery into personal brand capital. This paper argues that this pattern constitutes what we term unintended political branding, a process in which content creators critical intent is structurally hijacked, not through censorship or suppression, but through co-optation enabled by algorithmic logic that inherently rewards virality and affective engagement over substantive critique. Drawing on Habermas theory of the public sphere and his refeudalization thesis, we contend that when political figures absorb satirical AI content into their communication strategy, they do not merely manage their image. They occupy the discursive spaces in which dissent is produced, redirecting public attention from policy failures toward entertainment-driven engagement. This process operates at two levels simultaneously: at the structural level, algorithmic systems reward spectacle regardless of original intent, while at the actor level, political figures exploit this structural condition through deliberate co-optation. Together, these two levels produce a depoliticization effect, the gradual erosion of satirical contents critical function, with significant implications for civic trust, institutional accountability, and the ethical governance of digital political communication in the Indonesian algorithmically-mediated public sphere.
Keywords: AI-generated satire, depoliticization, algorithmic public sphere, political branding, civic trust
Topic: Strategic Communication in the Digital Sphere: Cultivating Civic Trust through Data-Driven Approaches (Digital Communication- Public Communication Strategy- Civic Trust)
