Plurality in Indonesia

In Indonesia, neither an Indonesian translation of the book *Plurality* nor any reporting on the book has been found. What stands out are profiles of Audrey Tang and reports on Taiwan's measures against disinformation. Collaborative fact-checking and a system of community participation in development planning existed beforehand, separately from the book.

In Indonesia, news organizations and civic groups join forces to fact-check (to check whether information is true), and there is a system in which residents give their views on local development plans. Where do these efforts in Indonesia overlap with the book Plurality by Audrey Tang of Taiwan and E. Glen Weyl?

In short

As of October 2026, no Indonesian translation of Plurality has been found [1]. Searching Indonesian-language news did not turn up any report about the book itself either.

What stands out are profiles of Tang herself and reports on Taiwan's measures against disinformation [2][3]. Fact-checking in which news organizations cooperate, and a system of development planning in which residents take part, existed beforehand, separately from the book [4][5].

For example

An Indonesian example raised by Tang (September 16, 2019). In a meeting with J. Casey Hammond, whose work in Taiwan also involves Indonesian workers, Tang brought up Indonesia's "Cekfakta". According to Tang, Cekfakta is an effort that strives for neutrality: international news organizations such as AFP and domestic news organizations of all sorts share their fact-checking procedures and build trust ("legitimacy") together. She contrasted this with Taiwan, which has no such broad coalition of news organizations. Tang, however, qualified this with "That’s from what I understand" [6].

At the same meeting, Hammond said that at a human rights roundtable at the previous year's Oslo Freedom Forum (an international conference held in Oslo), Hammond had said: "Two bright spots for democracy in this region are Taiwan and Indonesia." This is Hammond's own view [6].

A fact-checking forum in Taipei (May 7, 2025). At "Forum Cek Fakta Taipei 2025", held by the Taiwanese fact-checking organization Taiwan FactCheck Center, Septiaji Eko Nugroho, founder of the Indonesian civic group MAFINDO (Masyarakat Antifitnah Indonesia), spoke. According to a report by the Indonesian edition of Taiwan's news agency CNA, Septiaji said that workers who leave Indonesia to work abroad are easy targets for online scams, and called for digital literacy (the ability to judge information on the internet) [7].

In more detail

No translation of the book has been found

In the book's original repository (pluralitybook/plurality on GitHub), the text exists only in English and Traditional Mandarin. The names and descriptions of its 160 copies (forks) were also checked, and no Indonesian translation was found among them (a provisional count by this site, October 2026). Indonesian is not in the language list of the official site plurality.net either [1].

Searching Indonesian-language news for Weyl's name turned up only one article: an explainer on soulbound tokens (digital certificates that cannot be handed over to someone else) on the site of the investment app Ajaib (Ajaib Kripto) (a provisional count by this site, October 2026). The explainer cites a paper by Weyl and others [8]. The catalog of the national library has not yet been checked. → Soulbound Tokens

The only translated book found: Meretas atau Diretas

The only translated book found is a book of a dialogue between Tang and the historian Yuval Noah Harari. The dialogue "To Be or Not To Be Hacked?", held by the RadicalxChange Foundation, became a book titled Meretas atau Diretas (To hack or be hacked) from the publisher Penerbit Semut Api. Two book reviews say it came out in 2020 [9][10]. The book itself has not yet been checked. → Yuval Noah Harari and RadicalxChange

How Tang has been reported

In September 2018, Indonesian media, drawing on Reuters reporting, introduced Tang as a transgender minister. CNN Indonesia focused on support for social enterprises (companies that tackle social problems through business) [2]. JPNN wrote about the path from the 2014 Sunflower Movement (the occupation of Taiwan's legislature by students) to joining the cabinet, and about the principle of making everything public, "serbatransparan" (transparent in everything) [11].

In September 2020, Kompas.com, citing the outlet GovInsider Asia, reported that Taiwan countered COVID-19 disinformation with memes (funny images) [3]. In December 2021, kumparan, drawing on AFP reporting, reported that Tang's appearance at a conference in Seoul had been cancelled on the grounds of problems in relations between China and Taiwan ("cross-Strait issues"), and that Taiwan had protested to South Korea [12].

Collaborative fact-checking

Cekfakta.com describes itself as follows: a collaborative fact-checking project created by MAFINDO, working with online news organizations that belong to the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI) and the Indonesian Cyber Media Association (AMSI), and supported by the Google News Initiative [4]. Hammond, mentioned above, said that MAFINDO was founded in 2016 [6].

In December 2020, Rino Nugroho and others from Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) in Indonesia interviewed Tang for research on disinformation. Tang explained Cofacts, a fact-checking system that grew out of a Taiwanese civic project, and the approach of "humor over rumor", answering rumors with laughter [13]. → Cofacts

Community Notes, with which users on X (formerly Twitter) add context to posts, has an article in the Indonesian Wikipedia under the name "Catatan Komunitas" [14]. In January 2025, VOA Indonesia also reported Meta's announcement that it would end fact-checking in the United States and move to a Community Notes-style model [15]. → Community Notes

Musrenbang: development planning with resident participation

Musrenbang (Musyawarah Perencanaan Pembangunan, deliberation on development planning) is a forum in which the people concerned gather to discuss national and local development plans. It is set out in Law No. 25 of 2004 [5].

There is also "e-Musrenbang", which puts this online. The city of Banda Aceh introduced e-Musrenbang in 2015, and its mayor said that residents would be able to see whether the proposals they submitted had been processed or deleted [16]. The city of Bandung began it in 2017. The process goes in steps: the head of a neighborhood association (RW) enters residents' proposals, the urban village (kelurahan) checks them, and the district (kecamatan) checks them again. The proposals are also linked to the budgeting system [17]. Ridwan Kamil, then mayor, said that what matters to residents is "bukan soal disetujui tidaknya, tapi diberi kepastian" (not whether it is approved or not, but being given a clear answer) [17].

Citizens checking election counts

According to the Indonesian Wikipedia, after the 2014 presidential election Ainun Najib and colleagues created KawalPemilu.org. It is a site where volunteers share out the work of tallying the vote-count forms published by the General Elections Commission (KPU), and its aim was to prevent manipulation of the count [18].

However, the sources on Musrenbang and KawalPemilu cited above do not mention Plurality or Tang.

Arguments drawn toward the book's ideas

A user post on the news site kumparan (July 2025) introduced the four stages of Taiwan's vTaiwan (a space where government and citizens discuss policy online) and read them through the ladder of participation (Sherry Arnstein's idea of showing in steps how much power is handed to citizens). The writer argues that, taking the UberX case as an example, Taiwan can be said to have reached the rung of partnership, while some of Indonesia's spaces for citizen participation are still "simbolik" (only symbolic). This is the writer's personal opinion [19].

In June 2026, at a launch event for the book Demokrasi Digital (at IPB University in Bogor), its author Andi Ilham Paulangi named Taiwan and Barcelona as examples of participation mechanisms that take in citizens' voices online in an organized form [20].

What is debated

Can Community Notes replace professional fact-checking? In June 2025, the news site Darilaut introduced a paper (on arXiv) by researchers at the University of Copenhagen. According to the article, the paper points out that Community Notes writers in fact rely heavily on the work of professional fact-checking organizations, and says that if platforms stop cooperating with and funding those organizations, the notes' effect will also be limited [21]. Meta, on the other hand, explained its move by saying that experts have biases too, and that a mechanism meant to deliver information often ends up as a tool of censorship [15]. The Indonesian Wikipedia article also notes criticisms, such as that the system can spread disinformation and is easy to manipulate [14].
Is participation in Indonesia only for show? The kumparan post mentioned above says that mechanisms like vTaiwan can offer hints for Indonesia, but attaches conditions: real commitment from the political side, and fair mechanisms [19]. Paulangi also said that the biggest challenge is whether the government is ready to accept criticism [20].

Common misunderstandings

That an Indonesian edition is out. What has been published as a book in Indonesian is Meretas atau Diretas, the dialogue between Tang and Harari, not Plurality [9][10].

Where it fits in Plurality

The English edition of the book does not take up Indonesia. In Chapter 2-2, "The Life of a Digital Democracy", the book introduces Taiwan's Cofacts as a project of g0v (Taiwan's civic tech community) in which citizens quickly respond to questionable posts online [22]. In Chapter 5-4, it takes up Community Notes as a community-based "fact-checking" platform [23].

Tang's naming of Cekfakta in 2019 as an example of a coalition of news organizations overlaps with these topics of Cofacts and Community Notes [6]. Musrenbang and KawalPemilu are material that can be compared with the book's vTaiwan and Taiwan's digital democracy. But no source discussing the two together has yet been found.

Articles on other countries and regions: Plurality in Thailand, Plurality in Taiwan, the Plurality movement in Japan and Plurality in Korea

Sources

List of forks of pluralitybook/plurality and the location of the book's text (GitHub, checked 2026-10-02) — https://github.com/pluralitybook/plurality/forks ［CC0］
CNN Indonesia, "Transgender Jadi Menteri di Taiwan, Satu-satunya di Dunia" (A transgender person becomes a minister in Taiwan, the only one in the world) (2018-09-24, in Indonesian) — https://www.cnnindonesia.com/internasional/20180924150103-113-332736/transgender-jadi-menteri-di-taiwan-satu-satunya-di-dunia
Kompas.com, "Rahasia Taiwan Melawan Hoaks Seputar Covid-19: Menggunakan Meme" (Taiwan's secret for fighting COVID-19 hoaxes: using memes) (2020-09-11, in Indonesian) — https://amp.kompas.com/tren/read/2020/09/11/194500665/rahasia-taiwan-melawan-hoaks-seputar-covid-19-menggunakan-meme
Cekfakta.com, "About" — https://cekfakta.com/about
Indonesian Wikipedia, "Musyawarah Rencana Pembangunan" (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musyawarah_Rencana_Pembangunan ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
Record of the meeting between Tang and J. Casey Hammond (2019-09-16, CC0) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2019-09-16-Meeting-with-J.-Casey-Hammond.md ［CC0］
CNA Fokus Taiwan, "MAFINDO: Literasi digital cara ampuh lindungi PMI dari penipuan daring" (MAFINDO: digital literacy is a powerful way to protect Indonesian migrant workers from online fraud) (2025-05-08, in Indonesian) — https://indonesia.focustaiwan.tw/society/202505075001
Ajaib, "Yuk, Kenalan dengan Token Soulbound Milik Co-Founder Ethereum" (Get to know the soulbound token of Ethereum's co-founder) (2023-01-03, in Indonesian) — https://ajaib.co.id/belajar/investasi/token-soulbound
Omong-Omong, "Pilih Meretas atau Diretas?" (Choose to hack or be hacked?) (2022-01-30, in Indonesian) — https://omong-omong.com/pilih-meretas-atau-diretas/
Yoursay, "Meretas atau Diretas: Masa Depan Algoritma di Kehidupan Manusia" (To hack or be hacked: the future of algorithms in human life) (2023-12-26, in Indonesian) — https://yoursay.suara.com/ulasan/2023/12/26/112000/meretas-atau-diretas-masa-depan-algoritma-di-kehidupan-manusia
JPNN, "Audrey Tang, Transgender Anarkis yang Jadi Menteri Taiwan" (Audrey Tang, the transgender anarchist who became Taiwan's minister) (2018-09-25, in Indonesian) — https://www.jpnn.com/news/audrey-tang-transgender-anarkis-yang-jadi-menteri-taiwan
kumparan, "Menterinya Batal Diundang Jadi Pembicara, Taiwan Protes ke Korsel" (Its minister's invitation to speak cancelled, Taiwan protests to South Korea) (2021-12-21, in Indonesian) — https://kumparan.com/kumparannews/menterinya-batal-diundang-jadi-pembicara-taiwan-protes-ke-korsel-1x9aMGzj0y2
Record of the meeting between Tang and Rino A Nugroho and others (2020-12-08, CC0) — https://github.com/audreyt/transcript/blob/main/2020-12-08-Rino-A-Nugroho%2C-Dachi-Liao-and-Septyanto-Galan-Prakoso-visit.md ［CC0］
Indonesian Wikipedia, "Catatan Komunitas" (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catatan_Komunitas
VOA Indonesia, "Meta Hentikan Program Cek Fakta di Amerika Serikat, Adopsi Model Community Notes Seperti X" (Meta ends its fact-checking program in the United States, adopts a Community Notes model like X) (2025-01-07, in Indonesian) — https://www.voaindonesia.com/a/meta-hentikan-program-cek-fakta-di-amerika-serikat-adopsi-model-community-notes-seperti-x/7927189.html ［CC0］
ANTARA Aceh, "Banda Aceh Terapkan E-Musrenbang" (Banda Aceh introduces e-Musrenbang) (2015-03-26, in Indonesian) — https://aceh.antaranews.com/berita/23849/banda-aceh-terapkan-e-musrenbang
Republika, "E-Musrenbang Perkuat Smart City Bandung" (E-Musrenbang strengthens Bandung as a smart city) (2017-02-03, in Indonesian) — https://news.republika.co.id/berita/okrav9400/emusrenbang-perkuat-smart-city-bandung
Indonesian Wikipedia, "KawalPemilu.org" (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/KawalPemilu.org ［CC BY-SA 4.0］
Gusti Ayu Putu Indira Maha Rani, "Dari Protes ke Platform: Cerita Taiwan Menjawab Krisis Demokrasi" (From protest to platform: how Taiwan answered a crisis of democracy) (kumparan user post, 2025-07-01, in Indonesian) — https://kumparan.com/gusti-ayu-putu-indira-maha-rani/dari-protes-ke-platform-cerita-taiwan-menjawab-krisis-demokrasi-25NDRgzBfNU
AFU.id, "Demokrasi Digital Terjebak Politik Emosi, Transparansi Algoritma Jadi Sorotan" (Digital democracy trapped in the politics of emotion; algorithmic transparency in the spotlight) (2026-06-18, in Indonesian) — https://afu.id/nasional/demokrasi-digital-terjebak-politik-emosi-transparansi-algoritma-jadi-sorotan
Darilaut, "Pemeriksa Fakta Komunitas Tak Mampu Membendung Informasi Menyesatkan di Media Sosial" (Community fact-checkers cannot stem misleading information on social media) (2025-06-03, in Indonesian) — https://darilaut.id/berita/pemeriksa-fakta-komunitas-tak-mampu-membendung-informasi-menyesatkan-di-media-sosial
Plurality, 2-2 "The Life of a Digital Democracy" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/2-2/eng/ ［CC0］
Plurality, 5-4 "Augmented Deliberation" — https://www.plurality.net/v/chapters/5-4/eng/ ［CC0］

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