Patterns of Tobacco Marketing and User Engagement on Social Media in Indonesia: Challenges for Digital Public Health

Large-scale tobacco marketing on social media has resulted in widespread population-level exposure, particularly in Indonesia, which faces growing challenges in digital public health. This study aimed to assess the associations between platform type and marketing tactics and identify correlations of user engagement. An analytical cross-sectional study was conducted using secondary data from the Tobacco Enforcement and Reporting Movement (TERM), collected from January 2022 to August 2023. A total of 21,255 tobacco marketing posts from social media were analyzed. Platform–tactic associations were examined using Chi-square tests, and multivariable Poisson regression was used to identify factors associated with user engagement. The findings indicated that Instagram (66.8%) and Facebook (24.0%) accounted for the majority of tobacco marketing content. Community-based marketing was the most prevalent tactic (64.7%), followed by direct advertising (20.1%). Bivariate analysis demonstrated a significant association between social media platforms and marketing tactics (p-value