By: Zakaria) *
Radicalism is an attitude that wants total change and is revolutionary by overturning existing values drastically through violence and extreme actions. The public was asked to be vigilant considering that the Radicalism virus continues to spread through various media channels.
Radical viruses in the early symptoms show intolerant attitudes towards people of different opinions. At a high level, this attitude of intolerance does not hesitate to disbelieve others even with the same religion.
This intolerant attitude is then accompanied by an exclusive attitude that considers what it claims to be the truth and that other people are wrong. This will give rise to fanaticism which at this time can quickly spread to various groups.
In the past, the spread of radical ideas was still based on face-to-face teaching methods, then the distribution of books containing notions that assumed that recognition of Pancasila or respect for the red and white flag was heresy.
At present the speed of internet access is a boon for radicals to spread their doctrines. The existence of the internet is very likely to be a medium for spreading radical ideas both through articles and videos.
Moreover, everyone can have a free blog and social media account, tens of millions of Indonesians can also access video sharing sites like YouTube. Of course this becomes an obstacle for radicals to present radical nuanced content.
Propaganda disseminated online does not result in direct interaction between the communicator and the communicant. The information conveyed by communicators through online media makes the reader passive, meaning that the reader cannot reject the social reality built by the media. In fact, not necessarily what appears in cyberspace is in accordance with the social realities that exist in the field.
Groups like ISIS, for example, are more knowledgeable in information technology than other groups, at least almost all radical groups in the Middle East have social media accounts for propaganda.
Popular social media such as Facebook and Twitter are used by ISIS to spread propaganda content to raise money from sympathizers.
The Center for Cultural Studies and Social Change (PSBPS) Muhammadiyah University of Surakarta (UMS) stated that Facebook’s social network is still a potential medium for spreading radicalism.
Radical understanding in Indonesia becomes very problematic in Indonesia because it tries to force the will of all people to establish a state on the basis of a certain religion. In fact, Indonesia consists of various kinds of diverse ethnic and religious groups.
PSBPS researcher Subkhi Ridho said, of the total 262 million people of Indonesia, there are about 132 million people are internet users and around 106 million are users of social media.
The internet of course appears to offer a variety of ease in communicating or learning something. For example, to learn to cook, we don’t need to wait for cooking tutorials that show at work. The internet allows flexibility for anyone who wants to learn to cook at any hour.
That is, anyone can now access radical content every hour, not bound by time zones and can be accessed while lying down.
The government has also tried to block sites that contain radical understanding, but this has not been able to clean radical content 100%, moreover they can still upload the content on social media.
To deal with this, one of the steps that can be done is to apply digital literacy movements. The movement was designed to increase one’s control of various media used to send and receive messages.
Media literacy aims to enable individual internet users or media consumers to remain aware of the various messages conveyed by the media through analysis from various points of view.
The starting point of this movement is teaching people to be skeptical of the contents on the internet, especially if the content is filled with hatred and intolerance.
If this movement is promoted, of course we will provide a shield to the community to avoid the influence of radical ideas that have clearly wanted to change the state constitution.
Do not let someone easy to access the internet makes himself trapped in an understanding that is not in accordance with the state constitution.
) * The writer is a student of the University of Pakuan Bogor
