Coordinated disinformation campaigns target Singapore over Indonesia markets and made-up meeting

Across multiple social media platforms, CNA Verify found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert.

The falsehoods circulated included (left) a fabricated visit by prominent Indonesian figures to the home of the Singapore ambassador to Indonesia; and (right) warnings of Indonesia stopping gas exports to Singapore, while alluding to the latter's supposed role in Indonesia's market crisis. (Screengrabs: X)

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SINGAPORE: The post emerged on Instagram late on a Friday evening, claiming that Singapore’s ambassador in Jakarta had “received” two prominent Indonesians at his residence.

It identified former Indonesian deputy foreign minister Dino Patti Djalal and academic Saiful Mujani and asked, in Bahasa Indonesia, if there was a hidden agenda behind the alleged visit. The Instagram post’s caption also used a Javanese colonial-era slur for locals who serve foreign masters.

Posted by a satirical meme page with over 710,000 followers, it appears to be the earliest attempt at generating online attention for the supposed meeting, which the two men have denied as completely fictitious, and the Singapore embassy dismissed as “clearly disinformation” .

Both men had recently drawn attention for different reasons. The day before, Mr Dino publicly dismissed claims that Singapore was behind a crash in Indonesia’s stock market. And the week before, Mr Saiful’s polling firm published a survey showing declining support for Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto.

CNA Games Guess Word Crack the word, one row at a time Buzzword Create words using the given letters Mini Sudoku Tiny puzzle, mighty brain teaser Mini Crossword Small grid, big challenge Word Search Spot as many words as you can Show More Show Less The post was one of the nearly 400 posts that CNA Verify found pushing or repeating false and unfounded claims about Singapore, across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X and Facebook. The posts have attracted a total of nearly 12 million views across the four social media platforms. Half of these views came from just 10 posts. Among the main allegations: Singapore engineered Indonesia’s market crash; Singapore should be punished for it; and Dino and Saiful were doing Singapore’s bidding.

The post was one of the nearly 400 posts that CNA Verify found pushing or repeating false and unfounded claims about Singapore, across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, X and Facebook. The posts have attracted a total of nearly 12 million views across the four social media platforms. Half of these views came from just 10 posts.

Among the main allegations: Singapore engineered Indonesia’s market crash; Singapore should be punished for it; and Dino and Saiful were doing Singapore’s bidding.

The posts, detected through an AI-assisted search before being reviewed manually by the CNA Verify team, appeared from Oct 19 to Oct 27 – a week during which haze from Indonesian forest fires drifted across the region and Indonesia’s stock market suffered its worst two-day fall on record.

Further analysis by CNA Verify also found clear signs that several of the accounts posting these allegations were coordinated – set up on the same day, posting the same words and pictures, and at nearly the same time. However, it could not be established if there was a single operator behind these posts.

Asked about CNA Verify’s findings, Mr Muhammad Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman, a research fellow with the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) think-tank's regional security architecture programme, pointed to studies showing that Indonesia’s online space was full of individuals known as “buzzers”, who try to influence political opinions in the country.

“Some may be coordinated by local political actors, and some may be organic at the grassroots level. We may be seeing a mix of both,” said Mr Faizal, who specialises in influence operations and geopolitics among others.

“Their primary objective is likely quelling local dissenting voices, but if nationalistic fervour also tries to link foreign actors to these voices, other countries inevitably end up in their crosshairs.”

This graphic, which says in Bahasa Indonesia that “Indonesia threatens to stop gas exports if Singapore acts up”, was used by nine different TikTok accounts. (Screengrab: TikTok)

“IF SINGAPORE TRIES ANYTHING”

The first of the false claims stemmed from Indonesia’s recent stock market rout. On Oct 15, global index provider MSCI said it was considering downgrading Indonesia’s market status over governance concerns, sending shares into a freefall.

On Oct 19, former trade minister Muhammad Lutfi posted a video alleging, without evidence, that Singapore state investors GIC and Temasek had pressured MSCI into the move. Both have rejected the claims as untrue .

On Oct 22, Indonesia’s energy minister said he would “not hesitate to consider stopping exports to countries that do not respect Indonesia”. He named no country and made no mention of MSCI.

Two days later, Indonesia began reducing gas exports to Singapore , saying it needed to safeguard the reliability of domestic supplies. Singapore’s Energy Market Authority has said that the cut amounted to less than 2 per cent of daily gas demand.

Online, some accounts had earlier already attempted to tie gas cuts to Mr Lutfi’s MSCI claim.

Accounts named “Indonesia 2045” on Instagram and Facebook posted that “the Indonesian government is considering halting gas exports to neighbours amid the issue of Singapore’s interference in MSCI”.

Within hours, six TikTok accounts had copied the caption and image into posts of their own. One post drew close to 360,000 views.

The next morning, at least a dozen TikTok and X accounts began pushing a slogan – “Pelanggaran Hukum MSCI, Stop Ekspor Gas” (“MSCI legal violation, stop gas exports”) – mostly tacked onto the end of different post captions. Nine accounts used the same image which explicitly connected the slogan to “if Singapore tries anything”.

Some of these posts were published anywhere from 23 seconds to 25 minutes apart.

Across multiple social media platforms, a network of accounts posted similar images with the same caption, claiming a meeting that never happened between Singapore's ambassador and Indonesians Dino Patti Djalal and Saiful Mujani. (Screengrabs: TikTok)

Indonesian ex-diplomat Dino was targeted by a larger wave of social media posts that contained more incendiary language and narratives.

On Oct 22, he had dismissed the idea of a Singapore conspiracy against Indonesia as “unrealistic”.The next night, posts began claiming that he and political scientist Saiful – who was also reported to police earlier this year over remarks critics framed as a call to topple the president – had met with Singapore’s ambassador in Jakarta Kwok Fook Seng.

The earliest Instagram post contained a misspelling of Mr Dino’s middle name – Pati instead of Patti – that turned up on 30 other accounts. It was also labelled “INFO A001” – riffing on “Info A1”, Indonesian slang for accurate information from a trusted source and borrowed from military intelligence grading matrix.

The label and its variants were used by more than a dozen other accounts across multiple other platforms. On TikTok, five accounts posted the hashtag “#infoa001” within nine minutes of each other.

Mr Dino, Mr Saiful and the Singapore embassy subsequently issued denials about the alleged meeting. Indonesia’s ruling Gerindra party said it was looking into the reported meeting between “opposition figures” and Singapore’s envoy.

Another set of similar-looking posts from the same network called the non-existent meeting an "influence operation". (Screengrabs: Instagram, TikTok)

More than half of posts targeting the two men appeared on Oct 25 – the day Mr Saiful and the Singapore embassy issued their denials, and hours after Mr Dino's was first reported. Some of these posts cast the men as traitors or foreign agents, and described the supposed visit as an “influence operation”."

Many of these posts were published in short bursts of seconds or minutes apart, and by different groups of accounts, the largest of which appears to be a network of 68 lookalike, self-styled news pages spread across TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook.

This group shared captions and graphic templates and included 15 TikTok accounts which were created on a single day in May.

Some of their posts included hashtags such as #operasipengaruh (Bahasa Indonesia for “influence operation”) and #foreigninfluence. On X, three of the network’s accounts posted versions of the same story 26 seconds apart, one after another.

For all that activity, the network’s posts drew a median of about 760 views each.

Elsewhere, another cluster of nine accounts shared the same text cards, one of which asked whether the two men had “betrayed the nation”. Three accounts posted this within two minutes, with captions also warning against provocation and “cognitive war”.

A separate group of three accounts claimed the pair had received Singapore dollars to “cause riots in Indonesia”. Their shared caption, however, also acknowledged that the claim needed evidence and should not be treated as fact.

Posts like this also ran headlines claiming baselessly that Singapore had paid Dino and Saiful to "cause riots" in Indonesia. (Screengrab: TikTok)

“CONVENIENT TARGETS”

Experts previously told CNA that Indonesian politicians have long blamed other countries in times of domestic difficulty – helping them evade accountability while serving as a “rallying cry” at home.

RSIS’ Mr Faizal noted Indonesia was dealing with a mix of issues which “provides the ingredients and motivation for nationalistic voices to find a target to blame, to protect the state from popular dissent”.

“For nationalism to be convincing, it must aim at others that make convenient targets, such as smaller states,” he added.

Mr Faizal said any information contest or its escalation in response to anti-Singapore narratives would not help bilateral ties, which are particularly crucial with Singapore assuming chairmanship of the regional ASEAN bloc in 2027.

“We can highlight the positive aspects of longstanding bilateral relations and distance ourselves from any voices that could perpetuate tensions,” he added.

“Singapore wants to be a good neighbour and (a) prosperous Indonesia and Southeast Asia are good for Singapore.”

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CNA Verify在多个社交媒体平台上发现近400条帖子散布虚假信息，将新加坡与印尼股市暴跌以及一场从未举行的秘密会议联系起来。这些帖子累计浏览量近1200万次，其中一些帖子似乎是由一些协同运作的账号发布的。

流传的谣言包括（左图）捏造的印尼知名人士访问新加坡驻印尼大使官邸的事件；以及（右图）警告称印尼将停止向新加坡出口天然气，并暗示新加坡在印尼市场危机中扮演了所谓角色。（截图：X）

这段音频是由人工智能工具生成的。

新加坡：周五晚间，Instagram 上出现了一则帖子，声称新加坡驻雅加达大使在其官邸“接待”了两位印尼知名人士。

该帖子指认了印尼前副外长迪诺·帕蒂·贾拉尔和学者赛福尔·穆贾尼，并用印尼语质问，此次所谓的访问背后是否另有隐情。该Instagram帖子的配文还使用了爪哇殖民时期对侍奉外国主子的当地人的贬义词。

这条消息由一个拥有超过 71 万粉丝的讽刺表情包页面发布，似乎是最早试图通过网络引起人们对这次所谓会面的关注。这两名男子否认了这次会面，称其完全是虚构的，而新加坡大使馆也将其斥为“明显的虚假信息”。

两人近期都因不同的原因引起了关注。前一天，迪诺先生公开驳斥了新加坡是印尼股市崩盘幕后黑手的说法。而再前一周，赛福尔先生的民调公司发布的一项调查显示，印尼总统普拉博沃·苏比安托的支持率正在下降。

CNA游戏猜词游戏：逐行破解单词；流行词游戏：用给定的字母组成单词；迷你数独：小巧的谜题，强大的脑力挑战；迷你填字游戏：小方格，大挑战；单词搜索：尽可能多地找出单词。显示更多 显示更少 CNA Verify在Instagram、TikTok、YouTube、X和Facebook上发现了近400条关于新加坡的虚假和无根据的言论，而这条帖子只是其中之一。这些帖子在四个社交媒体平台上总共获得了近1200万次的浏览量。其中一半的浏览量来自仅10条帖子。主要指控包括：新加坡策划了印尼股市崩盘；新加坡应该为此受到惩罚；以及Dino和Saiful是受新加坡指使。

CNA Verify在Instagram、TikTok、YouTube、X和Facebook等社交媒体平台上发现了近400条散布或重复有关新加坡虚假和无根据言论的帖子，其中就包括这条帖子。这些帖子在四个社交媒体平台上的总浏览量接近1200万次，而其中一半的浏览量仅来自10条帖子。

主要指控包括：新加坡策划了印尼股市崩盘；新加坡应该为此受到惩罚；以及迪诺和赛福尔是奉新加坡之命行事。

这些帖子是通过人工智能辅助搜索发现的，之后由 CNA Verify 团队进行人工审核。这些帖子出现在 10 月 19 日至 10 月 27 日期间——这一周，印尼森林大火产生的烟雾飘过该地区，印尼股市遭遇了有史以来最严重的两日跌幅。

CNA Verify的进一步分析还发现，发布这些指控的多个账户明显存在协同行动——它们在同一天注册，发布相同的文字和图片，而且发布时间几乎相同。然而，目前尚无法确定这些帖子是否出自同一人之手。

当被问及 CNA Verify 的调查结果时，S. Rajaratnam 大学国际研究学院 (RSIS) 智库区域安全架构项目的研究员 Muhammad Faizal Bin Abdul Rahman 先生指出，有研究表明，印尼的网络空间充斥着被称为“网络喷子”的人，他们试图影响该国的政治观点。

“有些可能是由地方政治人物协调的，有些可能是基层自发的。我们可能会看到两者兼而有之，”费萨尔先生说道，他专长于影响力运作和地缘政治等领域。

“他们的主要目标很可能是压制当地的异议之声，但如果民族主义狂热还试图将外国势力与这些异议之声联系起来，那么其他国家最终必然会成为他们的攻击目标。”

这张用印尼语写着“如果新加坡不服从，印尼威胁停止天然气出口”的图片被九个不同的TikTok账号使用。（截图：TikTok）

“如果新加坡胆敢轻举妄动”

第一起虚假指控源于印尼股市近期的暴跌。10月15日，全球指数提供商MSCI表示，由于对印尼公司治理的担忧，正在考虑下调印尼的市场评级，此举导致印尼股市暴跌。

10月19日，前贸易部长穆罕默德·卢特菲发布了一段视频，毫无证据地声称新加坡国有投资公司GIC和淡马锡曾向MSCI施压，促使其采取这一举措。GIC和淡马锡均已否认这些说法，称其不实。

10月22日，印尼能源部长表示，他将“毫不犹豫地考虑停止向不尊重印尼的国家出口”。他没有点名任何国家，也没有提及MSCI。

两天后，印尼开始减少对新加坡的天然气出口，称此举是为了保障国内天然气供应的可靠性。新加坡能源市场管理局表示，此次减产幅度不到每日天然气需求的2%。

此前，一些网络账号已经试图将天然气短缺与卢特菲先生的 MSCI 索赔联系起来。

Instagram 和 Facebook 上名为“Indonesia 2045”的账号发布消息称，“由于新加坡干预 MSCI 指数，印尼政府正在考虑停止向邻国出口天然气”。

短短几个小时内，就有六个TikTok账号复制了这条推文的文字和图片，并发布到自己的帖子中。其中一条帖子的浏览量接近36万。

第二天早上，至少有十几个TikTok和X账号开始推广一个口号——“Pelanggaran Hukum MSCI, Stop Ekspor Gas”（“违反MSCI法律，停止天然气出口”）——大多附加在不同的帖子标题末尾。其中九个账号使用了同一张图片，明确地将该口号与“如果新加坡胆敢轻举妄动”联系起来。

这些帖子之间的发布间隔从 23 秒到 25 分钟不等。

在多个社交媒体平台上，一些账号发布了类似的图片，配以相同的文字说明，声称新加坡大使与印尼人迪诺·帕蒂·贾拉尔和赛福尔·穆贾尼举行了一次从未发生的会面。（截图：TikTok）

印尼前外交官迪诺成为社交媒体上更大规模攻击的目标，这些攻击包含更多煽动性的语言和叙述。

10月22日，他曾驳斥新加坡密谋反对印尼的说法，称其“不切实际”。第二天晚上，就有帖子声称他和政治学家赛福尔（Saiful）——赛福尔今年早些时候也因发表被批评人士解读为呼吁推翻总统的言论而被举报给警方——会见了新加坡驻雅加达大使郭福成。

最早的Instagram帖子中，迪诺先生的中间名拼写错误——Pati而不是Patti——这个错误出现在其他30个账户上。帖子还被标记为“INFO A001”，这是对“Info A1”的戏仿，后者是印尼俚语，指来自可靠来源的准确信息，借用自军事情报等级矩阵。

该标签及其变体被十几个其他平台上的账号使用。在TikTok上，五个账号在短短九分钟内相继发布了带有“#infoa001”标签的内容。

迪诺先生、赛福尔先生和新加坡大使馆随后均否认了所谓的会面。印尼执政党大印尼运动党表示，正在调查有关“反对派人士”与新加坡特使会面的报道。

同一社交网络上另一组内容类似的帖子称这场根本不存在的会面是“影响力行动”。（截图：Instagram、TikTok）

针对这两名男子的帖子中，超过一半出现在10月25日——赛福尔先生和新加坡大使馆发表否认声明的当天，以及迪诺先生的事件首次被报道数小时后。其中一些帖子将这两名男子描绘成叛徒或外国特工，并将所谓的访问描述为“影响力行动”。

这些帖子大多以几秒钟或几分钟的间隔短时间发布，而且是由不同的账号群组发布的，其中最大的似乎是一个由 68 个看起来很像的、自称新闻页面组成的网络，这些页面分布在 TikTok、Instagram、X 和 Facebook 上。

这个群组分享了标题和图形模板，其中包括 15 个 TikTok 帐户，这些帐户都是在 5 月份的某一天创建的。

他们的一些帖子使用了诸如#operasipengaruh（印尼语，意为“影响力行动”）和#foreigninfluence等标签。在X平台上，该网络的三个账号在26秒内先后发布了同一则新闻的不同版本。

尽管该网络活动频繁，但其帖子平均每篇的浏览量约为 760 次。

此外，另有九个账号分享了相同的文本卡片，其中一张询问这两名男子是否“背叛了国家”。三个账号在两分钟内发布了这条信息，并附上警告，告诫人们不要挑衅和进行“认知战”。

另有三个账号声称，这两人收到了新加坡元，目的是“在印尼制造骚乱”。不过，他们在联合发布的声明中也承认，这一说法需要证据，不应被视为事实。

类似的帖子还刊登了一些毫无根据的标题，声称新加坡曾付钱给迪诺和赛福尔，让他们在印尼“制造骚乱”。（截图：TikTok）

“便捷目标”

专家此前告诉亚洲新闻台，印尼政客长期以来在国内遇到困难时都会指责其他国家，这既能帮助他们逃避责任，又能成为国内的“动员口号”。

RSIS的费萨尔先生指出，印尼正在应对一系列问题，这“为民族主义声音寻找替罪羊、保护国家免受民众异议提供了条件和动力”。

“民族主义要想具有说服力，就必须瞄准那些容易成为攻击目标的其他群体，例如较小的国家，”他补充道。

费萨尔先生表示，任何针对反新加坡言论的信息战或信息战升级都无助于双边关系，而新加坡将于 2027 年担任东盟区域集团主席国，因此双边关系尤为重要。

他补充说：“我们可以强调长期双边关系的积极方面，并与任何可能加剧紧张局势的声音保持距离。”

“新加坡希望成为一个好邻居，（a）繁荣的印度尼西亚和东南亚对新加坡有利。”

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