This study examines the effectiveness of legal sanctions against social media campaign violations in regional head elections (Pilkada). Social media is now a highly influential campaign tool, but it is also vulnerable to abuse for violations such as off-schedule campaigning, the spread of hoaxes, and hate speech. Using an empirical legal approach, this study examines regulations related to digital campaigns and traces the implementation of legal sanctions in the field. The results indicate that legal sanctions stipulated in legislation and technical regulations have not been able to provide a maximum deterrent effect. Key influencing factors include weak digital oversight, limited law enforcement resources, and technical challenges in proving violations on digital platforms. Furthermore, the involvement of election organizers and cooperation with social media platform providers remains suboptimal. This study recommends strengthening regulations relevant to technological developments, increasing the capacity of cyber oversight by the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), and improving public digital literacy to prevent violations in cyberspace.
Keywords: Pilkada, social media campaign, legal sanctions