The prospect of civility in Indonesians' online polarized political discussions

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the level of civility of Indonesians’ political discussions on Facebook. Civility, which has always been an important concept in online political discussion, is particularly significant when there is diversity of opinions and disputation. While previous studies have focused more upon factors such as anonymity’s role and its relevance to civility, this paper proposes two further important factors: (1) diversity of opinion and disagreement in discussion and (2) the cultural context of the country and how it determines civility and politeness in online debate. Qualitative content analysis of Indonesians’ political discussions on Facebook revealed that polarized political views and the people’s politeness culture were two significant factors underpinning the high level of civility in political discussion.