Government-Community Synergy Is Important To Prevent Hoaxes

Hoax Alert Illustration/Photo: Antara

BEKASI - The government through various means and efforts continues to try to eradicate hoax information and attitudes of radicalism and intolerance that arise in the community.

Starting from drafting regulations accompanied by the threat of criminal sanctions for those who spread hoax news to digital literacy programs that include educational programs and information dissemination related to internet use throughout Indonesia.

The question is, is the government able to move on its own to stem all the disinformation content circulating in the social media world?

The answer, of course, is not without the active participation of all social media users. Then what contribution can the community make to the government in campaigning to eradicate hoax news?

"Kominfo is ready to work with anyone, collaborating with any community to make them at the forefront of literacy to the community in order to campaign against hoaxes," said Director of Information Application Management at the Ministry of Communication and Information of the Republic of Indonesia Teguh Arifiadi in Bekasi, Tuesday, January 26 evening.

Teguh invites all levels of society who care about prevention or are committed to suppressing the spread of false information, hate speech, and the like to collaborate with the government to eradicate disinformation.

Several communities in the country such as Mafindo, Cyber ​​Kreasi, Ciber Hoax Community, and other similar communities have so far made optimal efforts to campaign against hoax news.

However, in certain areas, volunteers like this are still individual, the community lives and dies depending on the developing situation and does not have the capacity for sustainability so they suddenly disappear.

Starting from the anxiety of its members regarding the circulation of hoax information on social media, recently a community has emerged among the people of the City and Regency of Bekasi.

They call themselves Malidi, which stands for Community Care for Digital Literacy. Malidi feels that the social media world has started to be flooded with hoax news since four years ago, marked by the number of news that spread very quickly even though the truth was doubted but believed by many people.

Malidi moves to clarify information circulating in the community by coordinating with sources that can provide truthful information such as the government, police institutions and the TNI.

"With the Puspen TNI we participated in making information videos, Dai Kamtibmas socialized anti-hoax. We will continue this expansion through educational workshops and visits to the educational environment, as well as cooperating with stakeholders to increase literacy activities for the sake of the Republic of Indonesia in spreading factual news," said the General Chair Malidi Heru Nugroho was quoted by Antara, Thursday, January 27.

Holding the principle of independence, transparency, and helping to educate the younger generation through social media and upholding national unity, Malidi focuses on education and digital literacy campaigns on the use of healthy, intelligent, anti-hoax, and anti-radical social media.

One of the regular activities is the Malidi-style Ngobras (Fun Chat) with various themes including spirituality, health, education, economy, child protection, law, and entrepreneurship which are all wrapped in one theme related to positive communication and information through social media.

Malidi's presence in the community and in the midst of destructive technological developments is very much needed because the role of critical public education in the era of information disclosure is important.

"I hope that Malidi can also help the government's performance, play an important role in countering false information that can mislead and harm the public," said Acting Mayor of Bekasi Tri Adhianto.

Malidi and other similar communities are expected to be able to provide a good and wise understanding of social media, and use social media as a means of campaigning for national values ​​and positive news for the public as well as educating the public about the dangers of hoaxes, radicalism, pornography, and against all forms of movement to divide the Republic of Indonesia.

We all hope that the contribution of the digital literacy community to the campaign against disinformation will be able to minimize hoax news circulating in the community. And hopefully all citizens are also able to make the best use of social media by filtering before sharing.

With this community, it is hoped that people can exchange ideas, discuss and exchange ideas with each other through various means, either in face-to-face meetings or online, so that narratives that tend to be negative and ideological radicalism can be prevented.