Diverse We Are One, United We Can; Avoid the Hoax for the Success of Development
By: Restu Cahya Nandita
Indonesia is a country rich in diversity. From Sabang to Merauke stretches 17,504 islands with 1,331 tribes and 652 languages. Therefore, the main foundation for building this nation is tolerance in order to strengthen unity. Without mutual respect, Indonesia will be divided and understand ethnicity. Therefore, good communication can be used as a means to strengthen brotherhood among Indonesian people.
In this era, communication is not only done verbally. By utilizing technology, everyone can communicate and exchange information wherever and whenever. The ease of accessing information certainly has a positive effect on various things. For example in education: students can access learning material and hold online discussions with teachers so that it makes it easier to absorb knowledge. In the economic field, technology also acts as an efficient promotional media.
However, the development of Information and Communication Technology also has a negative impact on society. For example the decline in social sensitivity due to gadgets, the rise of negative content, the spread of SARA issues, and the most massive at this time is spreading false news.
Hoaxes are false information or false news. Hoax is made with a specific purpose, ranging from jokes to serious goals. The spread of hoaxes in Indonesia is now increasingly widespread along with the number of social media users. It can be seen, based on the Indonesian Polling study in collaboration with the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII), the number of internet users in Indonesia reached 171.17 million people or 64.8 percent. Therefore, hoaxes will be very dangerous if the chain of transmission is not broken.
Fake news also has a negative impact on national development, especially if the hoaxes circulating are related to politics or ethnic groups. Communities can take to the streets and carry out acts of anarchism and destruction of public facilities due to being affected by hoaxes.
Lying news also circulated during the riots in Papua. The hoax was in the form of photos and information that said that a Papuan student in Surabaya had died as a result of being beaten by TNI-Polri officers. After investigation, it turns out the news is not true. Police Headquarters through social media accounts the Police Public Relations Division explained that the photo is a photo of an accident victim who died on Jalan Trikora. Precisely in front of TK Paut DOK V Atas Jayapura District North, Tuesday (19/2) at 07.30 WIT. However, the spread of hoaxes could add to the heat of the situation in Papua. Therefore, the people of Indonesia, especially Papua, are urged not to trust news with unclear sources.
As a follow-up to the hoax news circulating, the government has taken various actions to combat it. For example, during the riots in Papua, the Ministry of Communication and Information had slowed down network access in several areas of Papua which occurred a mass action on Monday (19/08). This aims to reduce the spread of false news. Therefore, the community must also support the government’s step in deciding the spread of hoaxes by always being critical of the news circulating. The following steps can be taken to sort out information on social media:
1. Pay attention
Read and look at the news. If the title and contents are sensational, the news could be fake. Hoaxes are usually provocative in order to attract readers. Hoax can also influence the emotions of readers such as anger, fear and sadness so that readers will easily spread it.
2. Study
Check the source. According to Press Council records, there are around 43,000 sites that claim to be news portals in Indonesia. However, only less than 300 sites have been verified. This means that there are many sites that can potentially spread false news. Be careful if news sites use the blog domain because the truth of the news can be doubted.
See where the news comes from. Is it from official institutions such as the KPK, Polri or the Ministry? Be careful if the information comes from CSO activists, political figures or observers because usually the information is in the form of opinions, not facts.
If the information is a photo, check its authenticity. You do this by dragging and dropping in the google images search field. Similar images will appear on the internet so they can be compared. In addition, check the place and time the photo was taken. It could be that the photo in a narration is the original photo (not edited), but in a different event. For example, what has been explained above, namely about the photo with the narrative of a Papuan student being killed by the authorities. However, it turns out the photo is an accident victim.
3. Compare
Don’t be satisfied with just reading information from one source. Look for other reliable sources and compare. If the news is a hoax, then the difference will be very visible when compared to trusted sites.
After these steps are passed, then the news can be decided on facts or hoaxes. If the information is false, then break the chain of distribution. After that, report the hoax to the Ministry of Communication and Information by sending an e-mail to aduankonten@mail.kominfo.go.id.
Indonesian Anti Hoax community also provides a page to accommodate hoax complaints as well as containing hoax news references in data.turnbackhoax.id.