Framing the Ethical Crisis of AI-Generated Images: Social Media Discourses, Intellectual Property, and Public Sentiment in Indonesia



Author Information

Suci Marini Novianty, LSPR Institute of Communication & Business, Indonesia
Nathalia Gunarian, LSPR Institute of Communication & Business, Indonesia
Audhiandra Okviosa, LSPR Institute of Communication & Business, Indonesia

Abstract

This study analyzes how Indonesian users on X (formerly Twitter) frame the ethical implications of AI-generated visual content. Through qualitative discourse analysis of 150 Indonesian-language tweets, interpreted via Entman’s Framing Theory, the research identifies how problems are defined, causes diagnosed, and remedies promoted. The analysis revealed five dominant frames. The most prevalent was misinformation and deepfakes (26.6%), which highlights threats to public trust and demands legislative action. This was followed by a morally charged consent and data exploitation frame (20%). Frames diagnosing economic harm included authorship and ownership confusion (16.6%) and creative labor devaluation (13.3%). A significant optimistic and utilitarian frame (23.3%) celebrated AI's potential while still calling for ethical guardrails. Applying Crisis Informatics, the study shows these frames are disseminated through horizontal, peer-to-peer (C2C) communication, characterized by storytelling and solidarity, and vertical, citizen-to-authority (C2A) communication, which is more confrontational and demands institutional accountability. Theoretically, this work expands Framing Theory by applying it to decentralized social media and extends Crisis Informatics to gradual technological disruptions. The study concludes that Indonesian social media functions as an active incubator for ethical norms, with users co-producing frames that highlight the urgent need for culturally responsive AI governance and center a crucial Global South perspective.


Paper Information

Conference: MediAsia2025
Stream: Social Media and Communication Technology

This paper is part of the MediAsia2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Novianty S., Gunarian N., & Okviosa A. (2026) Framing the Ethical Crisis of AI-Generated Images: Social Media Discourses, Intellectual Property, and Public Sentiment in Indonesia ISSN: 2186-5906 – The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 291-302) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2025.23
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2025.23


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Posted by James Alexander Gordon