Weaponizing the digital divide: a Weberian analysis of elite domination in Indonesia political contestation.

INTRODUCTION: Although Max Weber did not explicitly address digital technology, his theoretical framework remains crucial for understanding contemporary media power. In transitional democracies like Indonesia, widespread internet connectivity contrasts sharply with low national digital literacy, shifting the "digital divide" from a primary crisis of infrastructural access to a secondary crisis of cognitive competence. This study examines how political elites weaponize this secondary divide within the post-truth landscape to dominate the public attention space and consolidate power. METHODS: Grounded in Weberian digital sociology, this qualitative study utilized a triangulated research design combining a systematic literature review (n = 42), a documentary study of legislative and party archives (n = 25), and a six-month digital observation (October 2023 - March 2024) across social media platforms (X and Instagram) during the 2024 Indonesian Presidential Election. Data were analyzed using deductive thematic coding to trace algorithmic rationalization and engagement mechanics. RESULTS: The findings reveal that low digital literacy creates a profound cognitive vacuum that elites exploit through automated digital bureaucracies. By deploying AI-generated campaign strategies-most notably the synthetic "Gemoy" avatar during the 2024 election-political elites bypassed traditional institutional gatekeepers. This dynamic manifested a modernized form of plebiscitary charismatic domination driven by three empirical mechanisms: algorithmic satiation, cognitive desensitization, and procedural validation. DISCUSSION: This study advances Weberian scholarship by introducing the concepts of "Algorithmic Charisma"-where emotional authority is synthetically manufactured via machine learning-and the "Participatory Iron Cage," wherein hyper-connected users voluntarily reproduce elite-driven platform metrics. Ultimately, the digital divide in the Global South functions not merely as a metric of socio-economic inequality, but as a rationalized structural weapon of elite political hegemony.