Building National Unity by Movement of Positive Content Posting on Social Media Without Hoax
By: Sintya Azharoh (Netizen-Student of Paramadina University)
The development of information technology has influenced all aspects of people’s lives. Including the matter of friendship. In fact, it is not uncommon among us to be hostile to fellow coworkers due to differing opinions to bully each other on social media. Indeed, it must be admitted that the impact of the political campaign of 2019 was very influential on social division and also the polarization of almost all lives. This can be felt because there are individuals who have other agendas, such as ideology, which are involved in each nation’s momentum. This is where we all have to be smart in sorting out and choosing readings and posts.
It is not wrong to say that the 2019 political campaign was the worst campaign in Indonesian political historiography. Because in the 2019 political campaign the use of hoaxes became more obvious and blatant. This is evidenced by the use of the firehose of falsehood technique. If examined the use of firehose of falsehood technique has been proven to make public division increasingly thickened. Moreover, the content of the content also often uses the issue of SARA. In fact, after the 2019 election, the social division still continued, which was feared would damage the order of social life. This is where the more visible indeed there are certain groups that have other agendas and do not want the Indonesian people to progress.
In addition, the use of firehose of falsehood is very dangerous for the future of literacy in Indonesia. Because, this technique will continue to try to make the public no longer trust the mainstream media. When we learn from elections in the United States 2016 firehose of falsehood techniques can quickly spread because the people of the United States at that time trusted social media more than mainstream media. In fact, a lot of propaganda accuses the mainstream media of being part of fakenews. This distrust of mainstream news is used to strengthen hoax issues that are spread wildly and serially through social media to messaging applications such as Whatsapp.
Luckily not all countries in the world can be defeated by the firehose of falsehood technique. But the application of the firehose of falsehood technique is quite successful in making people trust hoaxes. However, we are a little proud because Indonesia is one of the countries that has successfully faced firehose of falsehood well, even though our literacy rate is very low. One of the reasons why in Indonesia lies in failures is failure, because there are many citizens who are digital volunteers trying to confirm. Until building rival narratives against various hoaxes in circulation besides the law enforcement of various ITE violations is very fast and consistent by law enforcers so that the network of perpetrators and their objectives is quickly dealt with and stopped.
One of the steps taken by the citizens of Warganet is quite unique, namely by presenting counter-content that is positive for example by inserting humor into the hoax. In other words, scattered hoax content is then paraphrased into humorous content. That way the public receives the hoax, as if he is getting a joke (humorous) and immediately realizes that the information is a hoax. This means that humorous content will certainly make both supporters more reconcile in the digital domain. Because humorous creative content will make the reader will prioritize humorous emotions rather than hate emotions. So keep in mind that in the midst of our situation receiving a hoax, creativity is needed so that the information hoax does not ignite emotionally. Thus to knit digital peace, a lot of humorous creative content is needed on social media.
In short, there are fragments that we can make an evaluation of the 2019 political campaign title, especially in efforts to weave peace in the digital arena. Namely it is necessary to encourage citizens who have the creative and imaginary power to participate in producing positive content. Thus, creative content that is positively valued based on excitement will certainly strengthen the unity between the children of the nation and is believed to dampen efforts to split only because of hoaxes.
