The campaign against the Rohingya was fueled by misinformation and propaganda on social media platforms such as X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok, where fake accounts and anti-refugee posts have gone viral.

Following Wednesday’s incident, however, the refugees found some support on X. Herriy Cahyadi, an Indonesian who runs his own humanitarian NGO, lambasted the university students who participated in Wednesday’s incident as “barbarians” in a post on X.

“What’s the difference between you and the uneducated, violent group? Your alma mater is a symbol of higher education. But your mentality is savage,” Herriy, posting under @herricahyadi, said.