Overlooking the victims: Civic engagement on Twitter during Indonesia’s 2019 fire and haze disaster

Social media serves as a powerful communication medium, in which researchers and practitioners continue to explore its relevance for understanding disasters. Twitter has received attention for its ability to communicate quickly across space, in support of disaster response, directing resources, and supporting victims. It also high lights what society prioritizes in a disaster. Our research examines the role that Twitter plays during a disaster, with attention on civic engagement among netizens. Indonesia’s reoccurring fires are a result of significant land use change taking place across lowland, carbon-rich peatlands in Sumatra and Kalimantan, creating a thick haze that can travel long distances impacting human health, the economy, and greenhouse gas emissions. Fore grounded by critical data studies, we apply a civic engagement framework and conduct big data mapping using Drone Emprit Academic Open Data software by keywording ‘forest fires’ [kebakaran hutan], aggregating 316,782 tweets unfolding during the height of the fires on 8–21 September 2019. Results show the highly politicized dynamics of this disaster during a period of contentious political campaigning intent on assigning blame or defending actions. In addition, the geography of Twitter users and the rural site of disaster served to amplify politics at scale, while drowning out the needs of direct victims. Thus, although Twitter may have a major role to play in disaster management, it is important to situate its role in the context of the disaster, foregrounding the geographic and political dimensions around the key questions about who is affected and how