The Sentiments of Indonesian Urban Citizens regarding the Lockdown-like Policy during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Indonesia implemented “Large Scale Social Restrictions” (LSSR) to cope with COVID-19. This policy generated various opinions between people that demonstrated their sentiments in daily life and social media. This study aims to analyse the sentiments of Indonesian urban citizens with respect to the policy. Using Drone Emprit Academic, a data mining tool that retrieved data from Twitter, this study examined tweets mentioned: “Pembatasan Sosial Berskala Besar” or “PSBB” from March 2nd, 2020 to January 11th, 2021. It reveals that significant events in the real world influence the sentiments pattern and classification during that particular period. The spatial distribution of the tweets reveals that the conversation is concentrated in cities throughout Java. Twitter-based sentiment analysis can be an alternative method for the Government to monitor and evaluate its policies in the future, specifically in a pandemic situation.