<![CDATA[The development of social media has given rise to various forms of social criticism delivered creatively through indirect language strategies. This phenomenon indicates that criticism is not always expressed explicitly. This study aims to describe the pragmatic strategies used by Sigit Sugiana in delivering criticism toward government policies, public officials’ statements, and social phenomena. It highlights how indirect criticism can function effectively while maintaining politeness in digital public communication. This research employs a qualitative descriptive method. The data consist of linguistic units containing criticism in the form of words, phrases, and sentences collected from 15 YouTube videos uploaded by Sigit Sugiana between January and February 2026. Data were gathered using observation and note-taking techniques. The analysis applies a pragmatic approach, drawing on theories of conversational implicature, indirect speech acts, and off-record politeness strategies. The results show that criticism is realized through five pragmatic strategies: irony, humor and hyperbole, analogy, metaphor and symbolism, and parody with role simulation. All these strategies fall under off-record politeness, conveying criticism implicitly through indirect meaning. This study contributes to digital pragmatics by demonstrating that social criticism on social media employs complex and indirect linguistic strategies, and it opens avenues for further research on different platforms and content creators.]]>
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