<![CDATA[Generation Z and millennials made up more than half of registered voters in Indonesia’s 2024 election, yet this demographic weight has not been matched by strong substantive political participation. Because young people rely on social media for political information, the same space that widens access to politics is also flooded with political hoaxes. This study examines the partial and simultaneous effects of political hoax exposure and the intensity of political content consumption on social media on the political participation interest of Generation Z in Semarang City. A quantitative explanatory design was used with 100 respondents selected through purposive sampling. Data were gathered with a five-point Likert questionnaire and analyzed using multiple linear regression after validity, reliability, and classical assumption tests. The results show that political hoax exposure has a negative and significant effect (B = −0.328; p < 0.05), while the intensity of political content consumption has a positive and significant effect (B = 0.622; p < 0.05). Together, both variables explain 41.1% of the variance in political participation interest. Social media therefore plays a dual role in digital democracy: it can broaden engagement, but it also carries misinformation that erodes young people’s willingness to take part.]]>
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