Distortions in Islamic Communication in the Digital Age: Disinformation Among Religious Authorities and Polarization in a Multicultural Society
Keywords:
Islamic Communication, Disinformation, Religious Authority, Polarization, Multicultural Society
Abstract
Digital media have expanded public access to Islamic knowledge while simultaneously creating conditions for doctrinal simplification, disinformation, contested religious authority, and identity polarization. This article examines the forms, mechanisms, and consequences of distorted Islamic communication in digital environments, particularly when religious messages interact with algorithmic curation, the attention economy, and multicultural diversity. The study employs an integrative literature review of scholarly works published on digital religion, misinformation, religious authority, echo chambers, and religious moderation. A thematic synthesis is used to connect message production, communicator legitimacy, platform distribution, and audience responses. The findings show that distortion extends beyond fabricated information to include decontextualization, legal oversimplification, emotional packaging, the delegitimization of scholars and institutions, and the strengthening of “us versus them” boundaries. Religious authority increasingly shifts from scholarly competence toward visibility, affective proximity, and engagement metrics, while platform algorithms amplify repetitive and controversial content. The article proposes a governance framework for digital Islamic communication based on verification, truthful speech, source transparency, algorithmic literacy, institutional collaboration, and moderate counter-narratives in order to protect public trust and sustain cohesion in multicultural societies.
References
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Vosoughi, S., D. Roy, and S. Aral. 2018. “The Spread of True and False News Online.” Science 359(6380): 1146–51. doi:10.1126/science.aap9559.
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AlMazaedh, Ismaael, Khalaf M. Tahat, Mohannad Alkhalaileh, and Dina N. Tahat. 2026. “Digital Religion in Platform Societies: Authority, Mediation, and Social Cohesion in Algorithmic Publics (2010–2025).” Frontiers in Sociology 11: 1802281. doi:10.3389/fsoc.2026.1802281.
Andok, Mónika. 2024. “The Impact of Online Media on Religious Authority.” Religions 15(9): 1103. doi:10.3390/rel15091103.
Armita, Pipin. 2025. “Digital Da’wah and Quranic Interpretation: Opportunities, Distortions, and Ethics in the Spread of Interpretations on Social Media.” International Journal of Islamic Thought and Humanities 4(1): 154–64. doi:10.54298/ijith.v4i1.421.
Atmaja, Anja Kusuma. 2026. “Transformasi Metode Dakwah Pada Era Algoritma Media Sosial.” ANWARUL 6(2): 488–505. doi:10.58578/anwarul.v6i2.9828.
Awan, I., P. Carter, H. Sutch, and H. Lally. 2023. “Online Extremism and Islamophobic Language and Sentiment When Discussing the COVID-19 Pandemic and Misinformation on Twitter.” Ethnic and Racial Studies 46(7): 1407–36. doi:10.1080/01419870.2022.2146449.
Azka, Kamil, and Azarudin Awang. 2026. “THE SCIENTIFIC AUTHORITY OF ULAMA IN THE ERA OF SOCIAL MEDIA ALGORITHMS AND THE SHIFT IN THE LEGITIMACY OF ISLAMIC FATWAS.” NIHAYAH: Journal of Islamic Studies 2(1): 54–69. doi:10.65802/nihayah.v2i1.121.
Bail, C.A., L.P. Argyle, T.W. Brown, J.P. Bumpus, H. Chen, M.B.F. Hunzaker, J. Lee, et al. 2018. “Exposure to Opposing Views on Social Media Can Increase Political Polarization.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 115(37): 9216–21. doi:10.1073/pnas.1804840115.
Benkler, Y., R. Faris, and H. Roberts. 2018. Network Propaganda: Manipulation, Disinformation, and Radicalization in American Politics. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780190923624.001.0001.
Bunt, G.R. 2018. Hashtag Islam: How Cyber-Islamic Environments Are Transforming Religious Authority. University of North Carolina Press. doi:10.5149/northcarolina/9781469643168.001.0001.
Campbell, H.A. 2017. “Surveying Theoretical Approaches within Digital Religion Studies.” New Media & Society 19(1): 15–24. doi:10.1177/1461444816649912.
Campbell, H.A., and G. Evolvi. 2020. “Contextualizing Current Digital Religion Research on Emerging Technologies.” Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies 2(1): 5–17. doi:10.1002/hbe2.149.
Cinelli, M., G. Francisci Morales, A. Galeazzi, W. Quattrociocchi, and M. Starnini. 2021. “The Echo Chamber Effect on Social Media.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118(9): 2023301118. doi:10.1073/pnas.2023301118.
Creswell, J.W., and V.L.P. Clark. 2018. Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research. 3rd ed. Sage Publications.
Egelhofer, J.L., and S. Lecheler. 2019. “Fake News as a Two-Dimensional Phenomenon: A Framework and Research Agenda.” Annals of the International Communication Association 43(2): 97–116. doi:10.1080/23808985.2019.1602782.
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Hasmuni, Hasmuni, and Marhamah Marhamah. 2025. “Islamic Communication Strategies in Addressing Religious Hoaxes on Social Media.” JURNAL HURRIAH: Jurnal Evaluasi Pendidikan dan Penelitian 6(4): 1282–98. doi:10.56806/jh.v6i4.352.
Hew, W.W. 2018. “The Art of Dakwah: Social Media, Visual Persuasion and the Islamist Propagation of Felix Siauw.” Indonesia and the Malay World 46(134): 61–79. doi:10.1080/13639811.2018.1416757.
Hjarvard, S. 2016. “Mediatization and the Changing Authority of Religion.” Media, Culture & Society 38(1): 8–17. doi:10.1177/0163443715615412.
Humprecht, E., F. Esser, and P. Aelst. 2020. “Resilience to Online Disinformation: A Framework for Cross-National Comparative Research.” The International Journal of Press/Politics 25(3): 493–516. doi:10.1177/1940161219900126.
Juditha, C. 2018. “Interaksi komunikasi hoax di media sosial serta antisipasinya.” Jurnal Pekommas 3(1): 31–44. doi:10.30818/jpkm.2018.2030104.
Kitchens, B., S.L. Johnson, and P. Gray. 2020. “Understanding Echo Chambers and Filter Bubbles: The Impact of Social Media on Diversification and Partisan Shifts in News Consumption.” MIS Quarterly 44(4): 1619–49. doi:10.25300/MISQ/2020/16371.
Lazer, D.M.J., M.A. Baum, Y. Benkler, A.J. Berinsky, K.M. Greenhill, F. Menczer, M.J. Metzger, et al. 2018. “The Science of Fake News.” Science 359(6380): 1094–96. doi:10.1126/science.aao2998.
Lewandowsky, S., U.K.H. Ecker, and J. Cook. 2017. “Beyond Misinformation: Understanding and Coping with the ‘Post-Truth’ Era.” Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition 6(4): 353–69. doi:10.1016/j.jarmac.2017.07.008.
Lim, M. 2017. “Freedom to Hate: Social Media, Algorithmic Enclaves, and the Rise of Tribal Nationalism in Indonesia.” Critical Asian Studies 49(3): 411–27. doi:10.1080/14672715.2017.1341188.
Lukito, Josephine. 2020. “Coordinating a Multi-Platform Disinformation Campaign: Internet Research Agency Activity on Three U.S. Social Media Platforms, 2015 to 2017.” Political Communication 37(2): 238–55. doi:10.1080/10584609.2019.1661889.
Miles, M. B., A. M. Huberman, and J. Saldana. 2018. Qualitative Data Analysis: A Methods Sourcebook. SAGE Publications. https://books.google.co.id/books?id=lCh_DwAAQBAJ.
Muthohirin, N. 2021. “Da’wa in social media: The views of Ustad Hanan Attaki and Felix Siauw to the hijrah phenomenon.” Afkaruna: Indonesian Interdisciplinary Journal of Islamic Studies 17(2): 249–70. doi:10.18196/afkaruna.v17i2.12671.
Nisa, E.F. 2018. “Social Media and the Birth of an Islamic Social Movement: ODOJ (One Day One Juz) in Contemporary Indonesia.” Indonesia and the Malay World 46(134): 24–43. doi:10.1080/13639811.2017.1416758.
Pennycook, G., J. McPhetres, Y. Zhang, J.G. Lu, and D.G. Rand. 2020. “Fighting COVID-19 Misinformation on Social Media: Experimental Evidence for a Scalable Accuracy-Nudge Intervention.” Psychological Science 31(7): 770–80. doi:10.1177/0956797620939054.
Pennycook, G., and D.G. Rand. 2019. “Lazy, Not Biased: Susceptibility to Partisan Fake News Is Better Explained by Lack of Reasoning than by Motivated Reasoning.” Cognition 188: 39–50. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2018.06.011.
Rohmatulloh, D.M., M. As’ad, and R.M. Malayati. 2022. “Gus Baha, Santri Gayeng, and the Rise of Traditionalist Preachers on Social Media.” Journal of Indonesian Islam 16(2): 303–25. doi:10.15642/JIIS.2022.16.2.303-325.
Roozenbeek, J., and S. Linden. 2019. “Fake News Game Confers Psychological Resistance against Online Misinformation.” Palgrave Communications 5: 65. doi:10.1057/s41599-019-0279-9.
Rosidi, I., K. Rajab, K. Kasmuri, M.A. Abduh, and M. Masduki. 2024. “From listening to producing: Ustaz Abdul Somad’s active audiences in Pekanbaru, Indonesia.” Ulumuna 28(1): 1–23. doi:10.20414/ujis.v28i1.684.
Slama, M. 2017. “A Subtle Economy of Time: Social Media and the Transformation of Indonesia’s Islamic Preacher Economy.” Economic Anthropology 4(1): 94–106. doi:10.1002/sea2.12075.
Snyder, H. 2019. “Literature Review as a Research Methodology: An Overview and Guidelines.” Journal of Business Research 104: 333–39. doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039.
Solahudin, D., and M. Fakhruroji. 2020. “Internet and Islamic Learning Practices in Indonesia: Social Media, Religious Populism, and Religious Authority.” Religions 11(1): 19. doi:10.3390/rel11010019.
Sulfikar, Achmad, and Daisy Indira Yasmine. 2026. “PLATFORMIZED RELIGIOUS AUTHORITY: Rethinking Legitimacy in the Age of Social Media Influencers.” Epistemé: Jurnal Pengembangan Ilmu Keislaman 20(02): 141–71. doi:10.21274/epis.2025.20.02.141-171.
Tandoc, E.C., Jr., Z.W. Lim, and R. Ling. 2018. “Defining ‘Fake News’: A Typology of Scholarly Definitions.” Digital Journalism 6(2): 137–53. doi:10.1080/21670811.2017.1360143.
Vosoughi, S., D. Roy, and S. Aral. 2018. “The Spread of True and False News Online.” Science 359(6380): 1146–51. doi:10.1126/science.aap9559.
Wardle, C., and H. Derakhshan. 2017. Information Disorder: Toward an Interdisciplinary Framework for Research and Policy Making. Council of Europe.
Yuliani, Ni Made. 2026. “Relasi Agama Dan Media Digital Transformasi Otoritas Keagamaan Di Era Komunikasi Virtual.” Jurnal Penelitian Agama Hindu 10(1): 104–16. doi:10.37329/jpah.v10i1.4942.
