Jokowi Until Megawati Becomes The Target Of Hoax Content Ahead Of The 2024 Presidential Election

JAKARTA Ahead of the 2024 presidential election (pilpres), the name of President Joko Widodo to the Chairperson of the PDI-P, Megawati Soekarnoputri is the target of increasing the number of hoax content on social media.

According to the Director General of Information and Public Communication of the Ministry of Communication and Information, Usman Kansong, hoax content continues to increase ahead of the 2024 presidential election. In 2022, his party recorded 51 content, while from mid-January to October 2023 the number increased to 98 content.

"There is an increase, the trend is like that, the closer the election, the more and more. Hoaxes target President Jokowi, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Mahfud Md, Surya Paloh. Those who are attacked by hoaxes are many leaders of political parties. Identity politics has not yet emerged. Hopefully, it will not appear, it will be estimated that the peak will be in January 2024," he said, Sunday, October 29.

Usman revealed that the type of hoax content is dominated in the form of memes and a small part of video content. Meanwhile, the spread of hoax content is dominated through the Facebook and Twitter platforms.

"Now identity politics is a bit reduced. In 2019 there was the DKI Jakarta Pilkada, now there is no DKI Pilkada. Identity politics is decreasing, we hope it doesn't exist. We hope hoaxes will decline in the 2024 election because of the short campaign period," he said.

He stated, reflecting on the experience, the longer the election stage, the more hoax content there is. He gave an example, the number of hoax content during March 2019 was 377.

He considered that the purpose of hoaxes was so that elections in Indonesia would not be peaceful. Many research results explain that political disinformation on social media has made democracy in one country resign or stagnate.

"Hoaxes can create polarization of divisions in society. Therefore, let's fight hoaxes together. This is what Kominfo campaigns for in the 2024 General Election and Presidential Election," said Usman.