Abstrak 
Globalizing Information Technology: Issues and Challenges in Contemporary Indonesia’s Democracy
H. M. Fadhil Nurdin
Penerbit Samudra Biru (Member of IKAPI)
Inggris
H. M. Fadhil Nurdin, Penerbit Samudra Biru (Member of IKAPI)
This chapter focus on the Information Technology (IT) developments that more increasingly integrated in almost every social aspect have shaped Indonesia’s contemporary democracy. This paper examines the role and influence of IT, especially the Internet and social media, to the practices of people’s recent political life. The issues addressed in this paper are several events that depict the relation of IT and political competition around 2014 presidential election. This study reveals that IT usage has facilitated the raising of people awareness on political or public issues, so they can put pressures on the government policies or strengthen particular political views. However, the IT Chapter development also brings the challenge of digital discrimination. Political pressure through the use of IT represents only certain groups who are able to access it and neglected the rest of others. The freedom to get involved in political discourses that enjoyed by the netizens in fact can be used by the political and media elites to support them. Moreover, the interaction between the political elite, the media, and the public on the Internet has led to an intense cyberconflict that potentially extends to either vertically or horizontally social conflict. Therefore, efforts to build the norms that go along with the IT development are needed, so its destructive effects on democracy could be avoided.