A recent series of events in Jakarta has thrust questions about youth radicalization, misinformation, and the power of social media into the global spotlight. In early November, a bomb attack at a school mosque in Indonesia’s capital left 96 people injured and sparked a flurry of online speculation and misinformation, some of which reached audiences as far away as Spain and Australia.
According to Reuters, the attack was carried out by a 17-year-old Indonesian student, whose troubled background and online activities have since become the focus of a police investigation. The teenager, who has not been formally identified due to his age, acted alone. He constructed seven small bombs at home, using materials like potassium chloride and nails, all sourced from online marketplaces. Four of the bombs exploded during Friday prayers at the school mosque on November 7, 2025, while three failed to detonate.
Investigators found that the student had been deeply influenced by extremist content online. Jakarta police spokesperson Reonald Simanjuntak told Reuters, “He wanted to be recognised by members of the online community … because he feels lonely.” Police discovered a 42-page diary titled “Diary Reb” at the suspect’s home, which included sketches of the mosque and school layout, marking where bombs would be planted. The diary, written mostly in English, also contained the handwritten date “November 7,” corresponding to the day of the attack. In it, the student expressed past trauma, feelings of isolation, and even suicidal thoughts, alongside his intentions to harm others.
Police say the teenager drew inspiration from a Telegram group that glorified white supremacist attacks, including the 2019 massacre at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, and the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School in the United States. The suspect’s internet history showed he followed instructions from YouTube videos to build the bombs. Notably, he managed to purchase all the necessary materials online without raising any red flags—a security lapse that authorities now plan to scrutinize closely.
To keep his plans secret, the teenager told his father that the items he was buying, including toy guns, were for cosplay. His family, described by relatives as low-income, lived in a two-storey house in North Jakarta owned by his father’s employer. “He was always on his laptop in his room,” said Rundiati, a 53-year-old relative who shared the house. She noted that the boy had become more withdrawn after his parents divorced and his mother remarried.
“There was no place for him to express himself, his emotions to his family or to his friends,” Simanjuntak explained to Reuters. The police spokesperson added that the student is currently in stable condition in hospital, after sustaining injuries from a suicide device that failed to detonate properly. As a minor, he is being treated as a “child facing the law” under Indonesia’s juvenile crime regulations. Before any formal charges are brought, the country’s parole and probation office will determine if he is eligible to stand trial and what form any legal proceedings should take. The office will also decide whether he should be handed over to the state or returned to his parents, though no timeline has been provided.
The incident has prompted a broader discussion about the risks of radicalizing young people through social media. Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, has a fast-growing youth population, and about two-thirds of its social media users belong to Generation Z. In a separate case, Indonesian police arrested five suspects who allegedly recruited 110 children between the ages of 10 and 18 to be part of “terrorism networks.” Officials said the school mosque bombing, though not linked to any particular organization, highlighted the same dangers of online recruitment and radicalization.
Social media platforms have come under renewed scrutiny in the wake of these events. Telegram’s terms of service explicitly forbid the promotion of violence, and spokesperson Remi Vaughn told Reuters that “moderators using AI tools monitor public areas of the platform and remove millions of pieces of harmful content each day, including material that promotes violence.” Google, which owns YouTube, did not immediately respond to requests for comment regarding the use of its platform for bomb-making instructions.
Amid the shock and confusion following the Jakarta mosque attack, misinformation spread quickly on social media. According to AAP FactCheck, a video circulated on an Australian Facebook page claimed to show a mosque being burned down by Spaniards in retaliation for “Islamist attacks.” The video, viewed more than 83,000 times, actually depicted a fire at the Islamic Center Mosque in Jakarta in October 2022, which occurred during renovation work. The Jakarta Post reported at the time that the fire was caused by sparks from workers cutting into the mosque’s dome. The misleading video was later debunked by AFP and Reuters, who confirmed that it had nothing to do with Spain.
The false claims resurfaced after a mosque was set on fire in Piera, a Catalan city about 50 kilometers west of Barcelona. However, the mosque in Spain was visibly different from the one in Jakarta, and local authorities found no evidence of prior Islamic attacks in the area before the fire. Catalan Minister of the Interior, Nuria Parlon, told Spanish news outlet COPE that evidence pointed to arson, but that police were still investigating. Photos shared by the Union of Islamic Communities of Catalonia and Google Street View confirmed the differences in appearance between the two mosques.
These events underscore the dangers of misinformation in the digital age. As AAP FactCheck, an accredited member of the International Fact-Checking Network, noted, viral content can quickly distort facts, fueling confusion and sometimes even stoking tensions far from the actual scene of an incident.
For Indonesia, the twin challenges of preventing youth radicalization and combating online misinformation are now more urgent than ever. The government has already begun efforts to limit social media access for younger users, but the rapid evolution of online platforms and the creativity of those who exploit them mean that solutions will require constant adaptation and vigilance.
In the wake of these incidents, authorities and communities alike are left grappling with how to protect young people from the lure of extremist ideologies online, while also ensuring that the truth is not lost amid a sea of viral falsehoods.