The rise of social media has transformed the way Indonesians communicate about politics, in part through the emergence of memes as a concise, humorous, and easily shareable tool for social criticism. This study aims to analyze the explicit meanings, implied meanings, and myths in political memes criticizing the Asset Forfeiture Bill on TikTok, while also explaining how these memes serve as a space for civic political participation ahead of the bill’s targeted passage in December 2026. The study employs a descriptive qualitative approach using Roland Barthes’s semiotic method to analyze three representative memes circulating on TikTok from August to October 2026, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected via screenshots and analyzed through three stages of sign interpretation. The results indicate that these memes reflect public skepticism regarding the bill’s commitment and effectiveness, concerns about potential abuse of authority, and distrust in legislative consistency—given the repeated delays in enacting similar regulations. Memes serve as a form of informal political literacy as well as a source of social pressure for policy accountability, and they enrich the study of the semiotics of digital political communication on audiovisual platforms such as TikTok, which have been studied far less frequently than platforms based on static images.
Copyrights © 2026