By: Rahmat Kartolo) *
History notes that hoaxes are not new, hoax stories are diverse, in the world of science, the military world even in religious matters. Starting from serious hoaxes that are risking and even sacrificing lives to trivial hoaxes that are just ridiculous to readers or listeners to a story. Strangely, ridiculous hoaxes can also trigger war.
In fact the spread of news hoaxes can go faster than the arrows that are darting away from their bows, only one press news hoax can spread to all members of the whatsapp group.
The development of technology has made humans can easily access information in other parts of the world. But behind this, fake information or hoaxes can be accessed by anyone.
Hoax also can actually trigger a world war. In early September 1939 Adolf Hitler told the German parliament that the Polish military had fired on the German army at 5:45 a.m. He then vowed to take revenge. The lie that triggered World War II was revealed after being discovered by the Germans themselves who killed Polish border forces. Because since 1938 Germany has prepared an occupation against its neighbor.
Elsewhere, on February 5, 2003 US Secretary of State Colin Powell claimed to have proof of possession of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq at a UN Security Council hearing. Although they did not get the UN mandate. The American President at the time was George W Bush, finally invading Iraq to undermine Saddam Hussein’s regime. But until now biological and chemical weapons claimed to be owned by Iraq have never been found.
In Indonesia Hoax can also make someone lose their lives. In West Kalimantan in 2017. A 53-year-old man was killed by a mob because he was accused of being a kidnapper. At that time the deceased intends to visit his newborn grandson at his son’s house, but at that time he was confused looking for his son’s house.
Residents who saw him immediately suspected and accused him of being the kidnapper of children as with the hoax news circulating at the time. Without trying to find out more information, the residents then ganged up on the man to death. Unlucky he did not have time to see his grandson for the first time.
It is conceivable that hoax news is a threat to national unity, slander can make the unity of the nation split, the ceasefire is tempestuous until life is at stake.
In this case there is certainly no mercy for hoax news spreaders in Indonesia in particular, because history has proven that hoax news will cause the destruction of a civilization.
One hoax that has an impact on the economy is the circulation of hoaxes about fake eggs made from rubber. The false news turned out to have a major impact on the decline in turnover of egg sales in the market to reach 40%.
Hoaxes in Indonesia never subside, it could be due to several reasons, such as the lack of digital literacy programs to the public. Digital literacy is considered important to provide awareness to the public about any content that has the potential to violate the law and not.
Another reason is because the hoax news is easy to get from friends or people we know. Because a human being usually also believes in friends or family, then our brain will not really filter the information and is easy to believe, especially if the person giving the news is a good person.
The New York Times mentions that hoax news is often spiced up with a boombastic title and attracts the attention of citizens, this attention is called a digital virus. This digital virus tends to be easier to viral and is trusted by many people who get the information.
Studies from Stanford University show that young people are primarily teenagers or students assessing the truth of a million from detailed content such as number and size of photos, length of articles and others. The study, which involved 7840 students, found that young people prioritized the contents of articles rather than news sources. This is the reason why young people are so full of hoax news.
In this case, of course the people, especially internet users, cannot escape the threat of false news or information that is biased about the truth. Not only that the community also tends not to care about credibility from news sources.
Hoax news also often contains SARA issues, content – content that was popularized by the saracen group, in fact makes the community divided because of its actions. This is because people cannot distinguish which issues are right and hoaxes. Minister of Religion Lukman Hakim said that Indonesian unity should not be faltered just because of provocation and incitement.
In order to realize national unity, the hoax news must be opposed. Various effective steps to respond, one of which is through a social media literacy education.
Warganet also needs to trace hoax information that is not known to its source to be juxtaposed with three or four media registered on the press council. Besides that we also need to control our thumbs not to share news that has not been proven, besides being tested we also need to consider what benefits we will get if we share this news on social media.
In addition, Warganet also needs to develop skepticism when there are boombastic news headlines, this is because news hoaxes often appear with titles that seem wow. Also be careful with fake URLs. Many hoax news sites pretend to be authentic news sources by changing the URL address. ) * The author is an observer of politics