Grassroots Against the Bet: Community-Led Digital Resistance to Online Gambling in Indonesia

Abstract

Online gambling (judi online, “judol”) has become a major digital-era social and economic harm in Indonesia, particularly among young and low-income groups. This study examines community-led digital resistance as a demand-side complement to state-led site blocking and financial interdiction. It investigates how key opinion leaders, content aggregators, and youth, hobby, and government-linked communities construct and circulate anti-judol messages; how network structure shapes message reach and resonance; and whether exposure influences awareness, perceived norms, refusal self-efficacy, collective efficacy, and intention to abstain. A convergent mixed-methods design combines social network analysis, quantitative content analysis, digital-campaign analytics, a community survey, and interviews with campaign actors and institutional partners. The study integrates connective-action theory, the two-step flow of communication, collective-efficacy theory, and inoculation theory. It is expected to show that trusted brokers connecting otherwise separate communities can strengthen message diffusion, while empathetic and prebunking-oriented content can improve resistance to gambling promotion. The study contributes a Global South perspective on networked civic action and offers practical guidance for community-anchored interventions that complement enforcement, strengthen digital literacy, protect vulnerable groups, and build social resilience against online gambling