JAKARTA, Indonesia— Social media platform Threads has been gaining popularity thanks to its text-based features that enable real-time interaction amid a week of student demonstrations across Indonesia demanding economic recovery, the disbanding of corruption-prone free nutritious meal (MBG) and the annulment of controversial laws on military (UU TNI) and police (UU Polri).
Demonstrations have been going on since June 11 in several cities in Indonesia, spanning from Jakarta to Makassar, involving state-owned and private universities and students’ associations.
According to an analysis from Drone Emprit Publication, positive sentiments for massive demonstrations at Threads reached 98.4 percent, followed by TikTok (90 percent), and Youtube (88 percent). Also, Drone Emprit stated there are more than 170,000 mentions related to students’ demonstrations spread in various social media channels such as Threads and others.
Interestingly, Threads users show solidarity in supporting demonstrations by providing donations such as food,drinks, and logistical needs. HumanityCare, a youth community that focuses on education, national disaster, and health, uses Threads to update information in real-time and raise donations to be distributed during the student's demonstrations.
Humanity Care raised IDR 70 million in just two days through the #DonasiWargaThreads ("Threads Citizens' Donation") campaign on 12 June 2026.
"We have a social media. In two days, we raised IDR 70 million. From housewives to students, they donated. We buy food and drinks from small and medium enterprises (UMKM) in the demonstration's location," said one of the Humanity Care pioneers, Fatur as cited in a national media outlet.
Humanity Care and Dompet Dhuafa on Monday (15 June 2026) distributed logistics aid from Threads users, or known as Threads citizens in the demonstration in Medan, North Sumatera. In the demonstration Friday (19 June 2026) in Jakarta’s House of Representative building, Humanity Care announced the donation amount reached IDR 10 million.
“Threads is faster in spreading information than Instagram and other mainstream media outlets. People in Threads update information, photos, videos from the spot, things we cannot see in national TV stations,” said a senior journalist who does not want to be identified, adding that she also donated via Threads and was delighted to see a strong solidarity online.
According to data from Meta’s advertising tools, the number of Threads users in Indonesia reached 8.15 million in late 2025, and the figure is expected to continue growing due to the app’s easy-to-use feature that speeds up real-time updates and conversation.
Photo by Muhammad Rizky Febriansyah/JNA Press
