Ahead of the 2024 Election, all preparations are being made, so that this program can run successfully. One thing that is also important is preventing the spread of hoax news because it will disrupt the election and increase the abstention rate. Students and students prevent the spread of hoaxes by educating internet literacy and making the public understand the difference between hoaxes and real news.
Hoax is fake news that is deliberately made, with the aim of bringing down certain parties. Unfortunately, some Indonesian people are still minimally literate, so they are easily fooled by hoaxes. They are also lazy to check the truth of a news and eat it raw, and immediately spread it to their respective communities.
Hoaxes are very dangerous because they can disrupt the peace of society and make the election potentially fail. Therefore, the community, especially students and students, must prevent hoaxes so that there are no divisions. Students and students are future leaders and they are trained to take responsibility for the success of elections, by preventing the spread of hoaxes.
The Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kemenkominfo) invites students in Biak Numfor, Papua, to be smart and not be trapped by hoaxes. They are also required to take an active part in spreading hoaxes or fake news in the 2024 elections.
Dwi Dyaningsih, Coordinator for Politics and Government of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics stated that Biak residents must support peaceful, intelligent and safe elections. They must be careful when reading news and information on social media, because in the 2019 election there were many hoaxes that were spread.
Dwi continued, the way to prevent hoaxes is that students must first cross-check when there is news on social media. Information filtering must be carried out so as not to be exposed to hoaxes.
In a sense, students as future leaders of the nation must take an active part in preventing hoaxes before until after the 2024 Election. Peace must be maintained so that the elections take place smoothly without any riots, even bloodshed. Therefore peace must be maintained by eradicating hoaxes and propaganda that can mislead and warm people’s hearts, because they are deceived by provocateurs who produce fake news.
Hoaxes occur because people already live in an era of openness and can access the internet at any time through gadgets. Unfortunately, this excessive freedom can lead people to fall into hoaxes, because they cannot distinguish between genuine and hoax (fake) news.
During the campaign and election period, hoaxes were spread and deliberately made to overturn political opponents. With fake news, people will choose a particular presidential candidate and avoid other presidential candidates. Hoaxes coupled with black campaigns are a surefire recipe for killing a presidential or legislative candidate.
Hoaxes can also increase the level of golput (white group) because the news spread on social media is only bad. If there is a hoax, then all that appears is the badness of the presidential candidates, so that people are lazy to exercise their right to vote in the 2024 election.
Therefore, university students have an important role to play in stopping the swift flow of hoaxes, for the success of the 2024 Election. They must educate the public and teach them how to distinguish genuine news from hoaxes. Most hoaxes are spread with provocative titles and are published in incompetent media.
Meanwhile, the Head of the Public Relations Division at the National Police Headquarters, Inspector General Dedi Prasetyo, stated that the National Police will oversee social media ahead of the 2024 General Election (Election). The democratic party must take place in peace. This step was taken after the experience in the 2019 election when social media became a very active medium during the election period
In a sense, ahead of the election, the National Police conduct security not only in the real world but also in cyberspace. The reason is because Indonesian people are very active on social media. With security, it is hoped that cyberspace will become more orderly and there will be no chaos, ahead of or during the 2024 elections.
At first, social media was created to find friends in cyberspace and find old friends who have long disappeared. However, since 2014 social media has changed drastically to become a place of war and the spread of hoaxes. Bad words and hate speech seem to be everyday food for netizens. Whereas social media is no place for barbarians, and should be used accordingly.
Don’t let the bad memories of 2014 and 2019 repeat when there are many hoaxes spreading in cyberspace. Starting from the fake names of certain presidential or legislative candidates, issues regarding their families, etc. Hoaxes are very troubling because they can ignite hostility between citizens and trigger brawls in cyberspace.
Students and students play a major role in preventing the spread of hoaxes for the success of the 2024 Election. If there is a hoax, it can disrupt the situation in society, and even increase the abstention rate. Therefore they must educate the people around them that hoaxes are lies and should not be taken for granted.
