Acting Neutral, Kominfo Will Process All Fake News From All Parties

Minister of Communication and Information Budi Arie Setiadi (photo: Dinda Buana/VOI)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Communication and Information inaugurated the press room of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics on Thursday, November 2, which is intended for journalists to have access to information ahead of the 2024 General Election (Pemilu).

"Because we know that one of the tasks of Kominfo is to ward off hoaxes, slander and hate speech," said Kominfo Minister Budi Arie Setiadi to the media after the inauguration of the Kominfo press room.

In addition, Budi also mentioned that through the anti-hoax Task Force (Satgas), Kominfo will continue to carry out its duties to sign or stamp hoax news scattered on the internet.

"Earlier I instructed the anti-hoax Task Force 'not to be different from disinformation, misinformation. Just go ahead and put everything on a hoax. So that the public can easily catch it," said Budi further.

For hoax spreaders, later Kominfo will cooperate with law enforcers to impose punishments in accordance with what they do. Whether it uses the ITE Law, the Criminal Code Law, and so on.

In addition, Budi also firmly said that Kominfo is neutral, which means that all parties that feel they are slandered by irresponsible persons can immediately report to Kominfo.

"We are neutral in Kominfo, whoever the candidate is, whoever the party is, if slandered we can process it. As for the legal matter, we refer to the applicable regulations and regulations. Anyway, if we violate the law, we will submit it to law enforcers," he said.

Based on Kominfo's latest report from January 2023 to October 26, 2023, Kominfo reported that 91 election hoax issues were found.

In addition, Budi also said that Kominfo had followed up on 378 hoax content, out of a total of 526 hoax content submitted to be taken down on social media.