The Number Of COVID-19 Hoaxes Increasing, Up To 1,387 Issues Circulating On Social Media

Ilustrasi (Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay)

JAKARTA - Since the COVID-19 pandemic hit Indonesia, the Indonesian social media universe has become a fertile ground for the growth of hoaxes, aka fake news. Even the number of hoax news spread continues to increase every time.

Based on the identification results of the Sub Directorate of Internet Content Control, the Directorate General of Informatics Applications of the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, from mid-March 2020 to January 26, 2021 there were 1,387 hoax issues spread across various digital platforms.

"Even today there are 474 hoax issues cumulatively and spread across more than 1,000 digital platforms. So, every day there is a continuous increase," said Director General of Informatics Applications, Semuel Abrijani Pangerapan quoted from the Kominfo website, Wednesday, January 27.

Semuel explained, especially the circulation of hoaxes about the Corona Vaccine soared after the COVID-19 Vaccination program began on January 13. According to him, various fake news content circulated in the community because there were still irresponsible people who deliberately created and spread hoaxes.

"One of the hoaxes circulating states that there is a tracking device on the barcode on the COVID-19 vaccine. In fact, the barcode on the vaccine package is to track the distribution of the vaccine. The tracking is not on the body of the person injected with the vaccine, but on the packaging. Kominfo also marks the information as a hoax," he said.

The Director General of Information and Application (Aptika) revealed the characteristics of hoaxes circulating on social media in various forms. One of the most common is to add the caption which is different from the incident, so that it seems as if it is made actual.

In order to recognize and not easily influenced by hoaxes, the public can identify simply by being careful with provocative titles, looking at site addresses, checking the authenticity of photos and being able to participate in the Anti Hoax group.

"We also convey and hope that the community uses our digital space in a healthy, smart and useful manner," he added.

The man who is familiarly called Semmy said that the government was regulating criminal and material sanctions for hoax spreaders in the Law. If deliberately disseminating, Communication and Informantion (Kominfo) Ministry will give a hoax stamp, or take down the content for sanctions, up to legal action.

"But if it has disturbed public order, you can report it to the police to follow up. Currently there are 104 cases handled by the police regarding this COVID-19 hoax," he said.