Term black campaign or black campaigns often emerge when elections are approaching. Political parties begin to compete to win certain candidate pairs (candidates). They use various methods to attract public attention and sympathy.

Then, what exactly is black campaign and what is the legal perspective on this phenomenon? See the full description below!

Definition Black Campaign

Referring to the Big Indonesian Dictionary (KBBI), black campaign is a campaign carried out by denigrating political opponents.

Black campaign (black campaign) is also defined as a campaign that leads to insults, spreading news hoaxes, slander, and everything that aims to bring down certain candidates.

A similar understanding is also written in Article 69 letter c of Law Number 8 of 2015 which implies the definition of a black campaign, namely acts of inciting, slandering, pitting political parties, individuals, and/or community groups against each other.

Black Campaign in Indonesia

Quoted from the official website of the Faculty of Law, University of Indonesia, the activity of black campaign was initially carried out by distributing or disseminating news through various print media, such as photocopies of articles, pamphlets, and other negative information related to the opposing party. This is done by the success team or sympathizers of legislative and executive candidates.

The phenomenon of black campaign in Indonesia is still rife because of the difficulty in taking action against this behavior. This problem is partly motivated by the rules in Law Number 8 of 2012 concerning General Elections, namely Article 249 paragraph (4) which states that campaign violations can be acted upon if there is a report or complaint to Bawaslu.

Meanwhile, the very short statute of limitations, which is only 7 (seven) days from the discovery of the election violation, also makes the activity of black campaign difficult to take action on. This is because the case is usually only reported to Bawaslu after the statute of limitations has passed.

Another cause of the rampant black campaign is the use of electronic media and online media as campaign tools that have not been fully regulated and firmly by the Law. Through this media, everyone is free to spread photos, videos, and various types of content to bring down political opponents.

Campaign activities through electronic media and social media are considered more cost-effective and effective in influencing people's mindsets. Considering that most of the Indonesian population has accessed social media in their daily lives. In fact, it is not uncommon for them to be reluctant to explore the truth of information and swallow raw what they see and read.