ALSA 2025 meeting

Digital transformation is increasingly recognized as a crucial element in the fight against corruption in Indonesia, with the goal of fostering greater transparency and accountability within governmental processes. However, the implementation of these digital initiatives is frequently assessed through a limited technocratic perspective, which fails to acknowledge the complexities and challenges posed by deeply rooted informal social norms at the community level. This research undertakes a critical examination of whether e-government efforts genuinely promote algorithmic justice or inadvertently create new avenues for digital impunity. Utilizing a qualitative case study and a socio-legal framework, the study explores the dynamics of how formal anti-corruption legislation is enacted, negotiated, or resisted in communities where formal legislation is shaped or contested by prevailing informal governance norms. The key finding reveals that a purely technocratic deployment, without adequate consideration of the socio-legal context, can produce inequitable outcomes, particularly for marginalized or digitally illiterate groups. These findings underscore the absence of an evaluative framework that accounts not only for technical efficacy but also for broader social impacts, highlighting the urgent need for new guidelines to promote substantive justice and equity.