In the Middle of a Unified Pandemic, We Are Firm, Our Hoax Doing is Collapsing
By: Hamid Karzai (Chair of Riau Regional Independent Social Media Activists Forum)
In the midst of the global war against the Covid-19 pandemic, there are parties not responsible for spreading false news (hoaxes) about Covid-19. Various misleading narratives go around almost every day covering the social media timeline around Covid-19. And, most of them are false news with unclear origins, let alone the truth. Some false news about Covid-19 are related to religious issues and some are related to global political issues.
For example, news which says that the Covid-19 virus was intentionally created by certain countries to destroy the world economy and ultimately make it easier for the country to dominate the world. There is also a linking the spread of Covid-19 with religious issues, namely the Covid-19 virus was created to destroy Islamic countries.
The spread of hoaxes rarely occurs naturally, but is engineered in such a way with measurable political targets. Hoax operations must be combated intelligently and wisely through literacy and implementation. Fight it also needs to be at least one click more powerful.
The massive spread of hoax news about Covid-19 which is no less massive than the Corona Virus transmission, of course, has a negative impact, especially on society. Anxiety and discomfort make a person’s mind and heart seem out of sync. Asking here and there but still not clear where to go.
In the long term, someone who is exposed to the hoax virus will adversely affect the attitude of daily behavior. Easy to believe things that are not clear, easy to be lied to, and easily provoked. Being very possible, it created a rebellion group in the archipelago.
Hoax content is a common enemy in cyberspace. All parties have been and potentially harmed. Even the comfort of national unity also threatened to be made. Joint efforts need to be made in mitigating the total phenomenon of this hoax.
Fight negative hoax content with positive content. Instead of hating and fighting against hoaks, don’t be trapped into creating hoax content without realizing it. Budaikan makes a chronology of information by including the source even though the source is from the eyes of the head himself.
Cultivate the filter before sharing. The thumb must be trained to control the phenomenon of copy paste and forward information. It needs to be read first though at a glance. If there is something odd or potentially detected hoax, then you should clarify or at least stop the information from yourself.
United in the production and dissemination of positive and true content will make this nation strong and solid. Conversely, the phenomenon of hoaxes that are left to even tend to be fertilized will become a time bomb that creates a commotion and chaos. The implication is not to play games, such as conflict, national disintegration, and the like.
Guard the independence and peace of the nation by participating in peace actions. Make peace in receiving information and make peace by helping to remind one another.
United against Covid19’s hoax news while maintaining a healthy lifestyle and posting positive narrative content and caring for optimism by destroying Covid-19 hoaxes that could hinder the completion of the Covid-19 pandemic.