Google Must Be Responsible For Hoax Data On Rupiah Exchange Rate!

Google Office Building (doc Google)

JAKARTA Executive Director of the Cybersecurity and Communication Research Institute (CISSReC), Pratama Dahlian Persadha, urged Google to take responsibility for the spread of misinformation regarding the rupiah exchange rate.

The reason is, Google displays data showing the rupiah exchange rate against the United States (US) dollar of Rp. 8,170 per USD, which is far from the actual figure.

According to Pratama, the information displayed by Google has been a reference for many people in various countries. If the data presented is inaccurate, this can cause confusion, unrest, and even potential for noise in the community.

"Google must be responsible for contributing to spreading hoax news related to the rupiah exchange rate against the US dollar which is not in accordance with reality," said Pratama in his statement on Sunday, February 2, 2025.

Previously, Google displayed an rupiah exchange rate of Rp. 8,170 per USD, which was inversely proportional to official trading data on Friday (31/1/2025). At that time, the rupiah actually weakened 40 points or 0.25 percent to Rp. 16,297 per USD.

Pratama juga mengkritik slownya respons Google dalam memperbaiki kesalahan tersebut. Respons perbaikannya terlalu lama. Padahal, informasi yang salah ini sudah berlangsung selama beberapa waktu, tambahnya.

He suspects that there are four possible causes of data errors displayed by Google:

1. Technical errors Exchange rate information provider platforms such as Google may experience a bug or system glitch that causes the data display to be inaccurate.

2. Differences in data sources Google may take data from sources or exchange rate information providers that are different from those used officially.

3. Input error(typo) Human error in inserting numbers into the system can lead to misaccepted information by the user.

4. Hacking or manipulation of the system Although very rare, the possibility of hacking or manipulation by certain parties cannot be ignored.

"Even though Google rarely manages to be hacked, there is still the possibility that certain parties try to manipulate the system, causing the information displayed to be inaccurate," said Pratama.

With this incident, he emphasized the importance of global platforms such as Google to be more careful in displaying broad-impact information, especially related to the economy and finance.