How does idea travel across the globe? In 1983, Benedict Anderson published his seminal work titled Imagined Communities that followed the printing enterprise that swept across Europe. The early mass-production of newspapers, novels, and books had unified various fragmented traditional language into one national language. Language as a medium then accelerated human conversations where ideas transferred and transformed the people and society. In the process, they—or we—gradually became aware of the thousands or millions of people in the particular language-field, our similarities and differences, and—at the same time—only those thousands and millions or so belonged. This laid the foundation of national awareness and later national identities, which soon created comradeship among the people. Anderson’s work on the spread of ideas became the main foundation of this research on understanding the rise of the internet, where ideas transcend boundaries. Everyday conversations, from knowledge-productions, memes, jokes, charity projects, pop-culture references, political aspirations to religious preaches, forced and reinforced, tangled and intertwined across the web. The question is: how do we understand our identity, and how do we build comradeship in a fast-paced digital era where conversations and ideas transferred in this unprecedented scale, uncensored and raw, from ordinary people?Internet Users and Activism in IndonesiaIn Indonesia, connectivity is growing at impressive magnitude throughout the region. A recent report on the digital statistics and trends for 239 countries showed that internet usage continues to grow all over the world up to 9% year on year. Yet user trend in Indonesia is six times the global average with a 53.7% growth year-on-year and 143.3 million active internet users. Hence, internet is an inclusive technology widely used to disseminate first-hand information in public, to learn events elsewhere and to engage in discussion and conversation across the nation. In 2019, the Indonesian government blocked internet access, responding to the riots contesting the result of presidential elections (May 2019) and the racism issues in Papua (September 2019). In September 2019, a large-scale student protest against controversial bills used colourful and creative digital campaigns across the internet. Hashtag of #ReformasiDikorupsi (Reform Era is Corrupted) stormed over Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook—amplifying the calls and invitation to join in the rally. It resulted in a massive amount of donation and moral support, with thousands of students and activists join the protest in at least eight major cities across the country.Urban Resistance through Digital MediaDuring my field research in Jakarta, I encountered people with various educational backgrounds, social classes, professions, genders, age groups, and ethnicities who engage and mobilize a movement for justice throughout the internet. I became very interested in understanding how evicted urban dwellers used Instagram and Facebook to mobilize their demands on the right to the city. For example, the displacement of urban hamlet in Tamansari gained massive supports through Instagram. Similarly, in 2016, the poor residents who were evicted in Kampung Akuarium and Penjaringan—an established settlement since 17th century—use their network on Facebook to gain support from their friends and families. At the same time, activist organizations, such as Rujak Center for Urban Studies, students in universities, and Japanese artist, namely Jun Kitazawa, helped them to promote their issues and, thus, created a narrative of injustice they faced throughout the web. In 2018, the newly elected Governor of Jakarta promised to rebuild their settlements and provided temporary shelters. At that time, the issues on evicted residents in Kampung Akuarium had reached the national population and renowned as the success story for the municipal government’s Community Action Plan project.ConclusionGerman philosopher Jürgen Habermas argues that the printing press helped democratize Europe by providing space for discussion and engagement to the citizens. However, the architecture of the printing capitalism and the internet have a fundamental difference: the cost of publication—in terms of time, energy, and money. While, at this stage, this research might be too premature to conclude that ideas across the internet had transformed our identity—how we think and evaluate ourselves and our engagement in the society, it might be best to say that: the free-speech production in the internet had carved a path of possibilities that it could affect us socially and politically, whether it is a huge or minimal impact. 1218KDDI Foundation Vol.11外国人留学生助成The Rise of Digital Activism: Urban Resistance in Indonesia京都大学Ruriana Nafilah Anggraini（インドネシア）ルリアナ ナフィラ アングライニ1 Temporary shelters made from plywood on the debris of eviction2 Residents grow greenery to decorate their neighbourhood 助成対象者からの報告
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