Jakarta – A research study by the Institute for Development of Economics and Finance (Indef) has found that conversations on social media involving the millennial staff of President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo are often triggered by or involve negative sentiments.
"With the analysis of big data, the results are quite surprising as 94.97 percent [of conversations] are stirred by negative sentiments," Indef senior economist Didik J. Rachbini said on Thursday as quoted by kompas.com.
The research was conducted from April 7 to 17, with data taken from 86,400 conversations involving 55,700 accounts on Twitter.Using aspect-based sentiment analysis and the help of machine learning, the research team collected and broke down texts into different components before determining the sentiment levels of each part.
Didik said negative sentiments over the staff were mostly related to recent controversies over conflicts of interest and their behavior on social media as government officials.
"[They] took political actions that were contrary to legal norms or violated the law, such as sending letters to district heads," Didik said. "Then, [they also] tweeted like other millennial kids even though they were officials in a high position."
Previously, several members of Jokowi's millennial staff were publicly condemned for allegedly allowing their private interests to interfere with their public service duties.
Andi Taufan Garuda Putra, owner of PT Amartha Mikro Fintek, drew criticism over a letter asking for district heads' support of a COVID-19 relief program led by his company.
Adamas Belva Devara, cofounder of education technology start-up Ruangguru, faced backlash after his company was named one of the government's eight partners in the preemployment card program.
Both Andi and Belva later stepped down as members of the presidential staff following each controversy.
Meanwhile, staffer Angkie Yudistia received criticism about content posted on her Instagram account that spread false information on COVID-19 detection on March 15.
In November last year, Billy Mambrasar was criticized after posting a tweet that demeaned the government's opposition. (syk)