The Power of Indonesian Unity Against the Hoax for the Prosperity of the Nation in the Future
By: Lia Apriatin
In this era we are familiar with the word “hoax”, according to the online dictionary Merriam-Webster explains hoax in English as a noun which means an action that is intended to deceive or make believe something that is not true. Not a new thing, this hoax has been around for a long time and not only among the Indonesian people, even in various parts of the world, it is already familiar with hoaxes.
For example, we can take it from the United States, mainly in connection with the 2016 presidential election. According to BuzzFeed News, in the last three months before the United States presidential election, the top 20 news hoaxes related to the US presidential election on Facebook have a share. reaction, and comment) is higher than the top 20 news stories about the US presidential election from various major news sites.
Some parties consider that the various hoaxes affect the outcome of the United States presidential election, the reason for the 20 hoaxes, 17 of which “benefited” candidates who eventually became winners and “harmed” the candidates who eventually lost. Although there are some who judge that the hoax does not have a significant influence on the final results of the United States presidential election.
The State of Indonesia itself last April coincided with the simultaneous presidential and legislative elections according to the Ministry of Communication and Information. 486 hoaxes were identified, and 209 of them were related to politics. The political hoax news in question is a hoax that attacks the political parties participating in the election, the Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates, the KPU and even reaches the Election Supervisory Body.
Not only in April, even after the voting of April 17, 2019, the number of hoaxes circulating in the community continued to increase from the month to month, it was certainly very detrimental because it could obscure the truth even to the unity of the nation, and if hoaxes continue to occur and spread then In the next 5 years, Indonesia could be led by smart people who make hoaxes, not those who really deserve to be leaders.
The main trick exploited by hoax makers is to exploit human weaknesses. The weakness of this human being is that it is difficult to accept information that is not in accordance with his beliefs and tends to trust or find information that is in accordance with his beliefs, even though the information is not fake or lies.
The spread itself, if previously hoaxes were widely neutralized via e-mail, mailing lists, then shifted to BBM broadcast and Twitter, in addition to Facebook currently more spread through Instagram and WhatsApp, especially when the group on WhatsApp can accommodate members in large numbers so it is very easy spread the word without checking the truth first.
As more and more widespread internet access and outreach followed by the increasing number of world population who use it, the hoax spreaders like getting new weapons, especially the Ministry of Communication and Information said that in Indonesia in 2019, internet users are among the highest in the world, reaching 54% or 147 million of 265 million Indonesians, with such rapid growth, hoaxes are certainly inevitable because they have become part of the development of information technology.
They will feel successful when the hoax news they make can be trusted by all of us, especially if we go to other people before knowing whether or not the news that we share. this is what will cause Indonesia to slowly collapse, because this hoax can spread hate speech that will ultimately harm one of the parties even this has the potential to divide the nation and that makes this hoax will get a lot of profit from the news.
At present many parties have taken steps in overcoming hoaxes, on social media only such as Facebook and Google already have their own ways to overcome hoaxes. Facebook overcomes it by working with third-party fact-checking and making it easier for users to report untrue news, while Google by stopping its adsensent advertising service against various publishers who are considered to publish untrue news.
The government also, precisely the Ministry of Communication and Information and Information of the Republic of Indonesia, has been diverting from various sites that display false information. In addition, there are even certain groups of people who take the initiative to take their own steps, one of which is MAFINDO. The product from MAFINDO is TurnBackHoax which is also present through the website www.turnbackhoax.id. On this site we can see and report various hoaxes and help assess whether the information is hoax or not. (source: infocomputer magazine)
Even so we as the people must continue to unite against hoaxes, especially for us as internet users and social media, let’s take steps to overcome this hoax by being more intelligent and critical. We should not easily trust information that is not yet known, alias not from origin, do not spread information that we do not know the truth about, and if we already know that the news is a hoax, then quickly find the source or publisher and report it to the authorities responsible for managing it.
Let us protect our nation from disunity, we gather strength with unity to destroy the poisons of the Indonesian nation, be intelligent users of social media, let’s fight hoaxes for development and national leadership for the next 5 years, build Indonesia to be great, prosperous just and civilized, keep upholding Pancasila Indonesia and love our country as we love ourselves.
Longing for the 74th Republic of Indonesia Unitary Republic of Indonesia may Indonesia become more victorious and independent from all hoaxes that destroy the nation.
I Love Indonesia
