Kominfo Finds 1,028 Hoaxes About COVID-19 Until August 8

Director General of Information and Public Communication, Ministry of Communication and Information, Prof. Dr. Widodo Muktiyo (Photo: Screenshot of the video titled New Culture, So that the Pandemic Passes)

JAKARTA - Director General of Information and Public Communication of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Dirjen IKP Kominfo) RI Widodo Muktiyo said there were 1,028 hoaxes or fake news related to the new corona virus (COVID-19) until August 8.

"There were 1,028 hoaxes in Indonesia related to COVID-19 until (8) August. March is the time when the most hoaxes were found, following the start of the news of the COVID-19 case," said Widodo through a virtual broadcast entitled New Culture, So that the Pandemic Passes, reported by Antara, Wednesday, August 12.

In response to this, Widodo said, the Ministry of Communication and Information had made efforts to prevent the negative effects of the abundance of news about the pandemic which gave rise to anxiety, frustration, a tendency to create sensations, fear without taking off, and a tendency to disinformation.

"One of them is by taking down (hoax news), so that people get clear information and can continue to comply with health protocols," said the man who is also the Chairman of the LKBN Antara Supervisory Board.

Furthermore, Widodo also said that controlling hoaxes on the internet itself also requires public participation, apart from the presence of the Kominfo team which also monitors data and information management, especially on social media.

According to him, in this era of openness, everyone can have a voice, but of course it must be accompanied by a responsibility to prove that the information disseminated is valid.

"If the data can be proven, of course it can be sounded (voiced). In this era of openness, data validation is needed, not hoax or fighting, and this is necessary with feedback from the public," said Widodo.

Furthermore, he encouraged people to be wise in social media, especially the distribution of chain messages on the WhatsApp application.

"The public is expected to be able to self-regulate the WhatsApp group they are joining. If indeed the community joins and there is something that is not logical, strange, and asks to spread it, we must clean it up," said Widodo.

"The community participates in a participatory manner to provide a broom to clean messages with provocative language, ridicule, and there is a side of narrative being played," he concluded.