By: Bayu Rahman) *
Our virtual world is suffering from liver disease. Information waste is massively scattered without verification and confirmation. Hoax, slander and blasphemy are almost endless. News of birds coming and going. This disease is now endemic almost imperceptibly. According to the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information, at the end of 2016 there were at least 800 sites suspected of being producers of hoaxes, fake news, and hate speech. Spread through Facebook, Twitter, to Whatsapp groups, the virus directly attacks the brain tearing human reason, and causes a loss of wisdom and nobility.
Hoax is information or news that is not true, hoaxes are usually used by someone ranging from jokes to something serious like politics, the news is used as a tool to destroy unity. Today’s hoax news is widely disseminated through social media such as chat applications, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter, many social media users receive hoax news, some directly believe the news received, some also find out the truth of the news.
In Indonesia, today there are many people who spread hoax news, hoax politics are used by people who are looking for opportunities to fight, divide community unity, if in the election the hoax news is spread to slander the candidate’s partner usually hoax news is spread by people who are not responsible for personal interests or for the benefit of certain groups.
If news of hoaxes continues to be left in Indonesia, this will have even worse impact on Indonesian democracy, moreover the hoax news usually appears at the moment of democracy such as during the 2017 Jakarta regional election where the Jakarta dki pilkada did indeed talk about the entire community Indonesia, which we know in the local election, both sides attacked each other and aimed at the superiority of each pair of gubernatorial candidates, the pilkada colored with the SARA conflict made some irresponsible people take advantage of the moment to make hoax news which eventually caused the commotion between supporters, such a moment is the news hoax is widespread, resulting in debates and divisions between supporters of each governor candidate and hoax news affect public confidence in the government the community will think badly because of the news even though the news is not necessarily true fact.
If the hoax continues to be allowed this will lead to anxiety and can become a threat in democracy and community politics, democracy which should be the place for the community to create a new step for Indonesian politics going forward but it becomes a devastating Indonesian society.
In the midst of public anxiety about hoax news that threatens democracy in Indonesia, hoaxes are used by elites as claiming to be called social anxiety, when the facts cannot support the claims of problems created, hoaxes pose a threat in a society that is increasingly losing its sense its democracy and the increasingly weakening of habitus literacy. Thus, as our own Indonesian society, we must fight against the news of existing hoaxes, where the principles of independence, democratization of knowledge, and equal public participation are the right ways to prevent the phenomenon of hoaxes in Indonesia.
Didik Haryadi, Lecturer in Communication Studies at the University of Mercu Buana Yogyakarta said that the spread of hoaks has a motive that refers to fighting and power in cyberspace. “In my opinion there are three goals of hoaxes spread out. First, economic motives; second, ideological-political motives; and third, the motive of sharing / pleasure. Economical motives refer to the accumulation of capital and profit calculations from the hoax maker through increasing website visit ratings, from which it gets a high rating and advertisements enter. Ideological-political motives, this motive tends to create and or spread hoaxes for ideological and political purposes whose aim is to hit opponents of different ideologies and hit political opponents through virtual space. “
In the research journal Christiany Juditha, entitled ‘Communication Hoax Interaction on Social Media and its Anticipation’, said that there are three important approaches needed to anticipate the spread of hoax news in the community, namely institutional, technological and literacy approaches. Institutional approach, by continuing to promote the anti-hoax community. In terms of technological approaches, the application of the hoax cheker can be used by the public to check the truth of the news that indicates hoax. Literacy approach, with anti-hoax news movements and socialization to the public, from schools to the general public that is enhanced and encouraged, not only by the government but also by all levels of society including other non-government institutions.
) * The author is an activist at the Student Press House
