ABSTRACT
It is more than a decade since the first Indonesian language newsgroups were starting up to celebrate the arrival of a new medium/weapon in the struggle to rid the country of an old authoritarian ruler, and almost a decade since the first Internet Service Providers (ISPs) were being established in Indonesia and the earliest warnet began promising equal access to the new technology. In the heady days of the anti-Suharto demonstrations, the Internet established its reputation as the fastest and most accurate of the ‘news media’ amongst the young, the urban and particularly amongst the anti-New Order activists. When large street protests and civil unrest occurred, it was to the Internet that these people turned in the hope of information and critical analysis.
