It is important that all elements of society in Indonesia are able to be more aware of the spread of hoax issues, especially when approaching the 2024 election as it is today. This can greatly damage the quality of democracy in the country with many bombastic narratives that have the potential to divide society and give rise to many bad prejudices and wild opinions in the public.
In the run-up to the implementation of the democratic party and political contestation in the General Elections (Elections) which will be held in 2024, it turns out that more and more news here contains narratives and issues that cannot be accounted for, especially with titles that are very bombastic and have the potential to bring up fights between communities.
Indeed, entering a political year and month like now, the competition between candidates is getting tougher and heating up, which usually doesn’t only come from the candidates who are contesting, but also the tight and hot competition involving their supporters.
The sad thing is, with the increasingly heated political climate in the country, various methods are often used even though this method is not the right thing, for example spreading fake news or hoax issues and making wild opinion in the public even more rampant.
In this regard, the Chairperson of the Indonesian Cyber Media Association (AMSI), Wanseslaus Manggut explained that actually the pattern of fake news or hoaxes themselves can still be detected early on by the public. Initial detection that can be done independently by the community can at least start from seeing what the news titles are contained.
Most likely, usually news headlines that are very bombastic and raise the possibility of pitting one against the other and threatening stability or conduciveness are precisely what should be watched out for so that people are not too easily influenced by the issues or narratives contained in the news.
Also included, usually the target of spreading fake news or hoaxes is targeting the public as the permanent voter list (DPT). According to him, if based on the patterns that have occurred, if you look at the map, then everything has been prepared and orchestrated in such a way.
As observed by the Chairperson of AMSI, hoaxes are usually circulated to the public at large with a very massive and fast spread, then after that there is a clarification regarding how true the news is, but sometimes the clarification cannot reach all audiences. evenly and quickly.
The speed ratio for clarification turns out to be only one-tenth or about 10 percent of hoax news circulating in the community, which is of course something that must be watched out for.
One of the hoaxes that has recently been widely discussed and is currently going viral in society is the Indonesian Solidarity Party (PSI) Cadre Ade Armando, who has re-emerged and has successfully surprised the public with his controversial statement.
This time it was as if he was trying to dismantle the existence of a source of funds that financed his group in the past and it turned out that the source of the funds involved the name of a state institution. In fact, Ade Armando clearly disclosed the hoax issue by stating that there was an institution with the initials of three letters and the head of the institution had close ties to the head of a certain party.
Of course, this is exactly the same as the analysis put forward by Wanseslaus Manggut as General Chair of the Indonesian Cyber Media Association (AMSI) that what was put forward by the PSI cadre contains something that has the potential to give rise to lots of bad prejudice and wild opinions in society and is very risky to become pitting against one another in the midst of social harmony in Indonesia.
Then, Solopos Journalist, Syifaul Arifin explained that the increase in the spread of rumors and fake news or hoaxes in society ahead of the 2024 Election was also exacerbated by the role of influencers and buzzers. Therefore, he appealed to these influencers not to become partisans or followers of certain parties.
As is well known, Ade Armando himself is also quite well known as an influencer because he often appears to the public via YouTube videos with various kinds of opinions which of course contain controversy. Moreover, now that he has become a PSI cadre, he is starting to re-emerge into the public sphere with hot issues that he spoke about.
According to the Director of Emnesty International Indonesia, Usman Hamid, the large number of hoaxes conveyed or spread will clearly exacerbate the decline of the democratic system that has been running in the country, including also damaging the quality of the elections themselves.
Especially when the general public reads the headlines delivered, whether it’s through social media or a YouTube account created by an influencer whose face is usually seen in the digital space, usually the public themselves will immediately be very easily taken in by the bombastic title. Even though it is clear that this is one of the characteristics of the spread of hoax news which really deserves to be watched out for because it will later damage Indonesian democracy itself, especially ahead of the 2024 General Election as it is now.
