By: Astrid Nurmalinda
It cannot be denied that social media and cyberspace are currently being flooded with hoaxes. Along with this political year, the spread of hoaxes is inseparable from the close proximity of the 2019 Election to be held next month.
Hoax is fake news that is intentionally disseminated to the public for a short-term purpose justifies any means to win political and long-term contestation. The length is to undermine national unity as a proxy war as happened in several countries to become a failed state.
During the campaign period, the spread of hoaxes became more massive and tended to be uncontrollable. The news that we read, both in cyberspace, social media, and WhatsApp, can not be separated from the name hoax and very misleading. Full of slander and hate speech.
When looked back, apparently hoaxes were created not only by ordinary people who were just playing around to look for sensations. However, at this time hoaxes have been arranged in such a way that is planned and directed, with the main goal, which is to influence the community in accordance with the desires that they want and even become business like what happened to the Saracens that have been revealed by the Police.
This is certainly very troubling because the spread of hoax news threatens the unity and integrity of the unitary state of the Republic of Indonesia. Then it should be for us not to let false news easily spread among the people.
If we receive videos, photos, texts and so on from sources that are not clear sources and potentially hoaxes, it is better to delete them or not spread them for the sake of our common good even though the titles really spark curiosity.
We all hope that the peaceful and dignified 2019 elections that maintain national unity are truly created and this can be realized by fighting hoaxes together for the success of a quality and dignified 2019 Election and the success of national development sustainability towards a developed Indonesia that is respected by the other nations.
Medical Student at Airlangga University