Practicing Social Media Fiqh: Motives and Forms of Digital Activism among Santri in Advocating Marginalized Communities and Environmental Issues

Abstract

The rapid mediatization of Islam has shifted religious authority from traditional physical pulpits to digital screens, prompting traditional santri (boarding school students) to engage as active digital agents. This qualitative case study investigates how students at Pondok Pesantren Darussalam Ciamis, West Java, negotiate and practice digital activism on social media to advocate for marginalized communities and environmental issues. Drawing on in-depth interviews and field observations, we find that santri activism is driven by profound empathy and a holistic theological synthesis that merges personal piety with social responsibility. The students employ diverse creative forms, including short educational videos, visual infographics, respectful narrative storytelling, and online-to-offline community mobilization. In navigating the ethical hazards of the online attention economy, they practice a lived social media fiqh by deliberately slowing down to apply tabayyun (verification) and prioritizing maslahah (public benefit) over algorithmic reach, while actively preserving human dignity (ḥifẓ al-ʿirḍ) to avoid exploitative representations. Ultimately, this study contributes to bridging the empirical deficit in digital religion studies by demonstrating how traditional jurisprudence operates on the ground, establishing a hybrid framework of "Digital Fiqh Governance" as an ethical compass for contemporary digital spaces.