Research: 62 Percent Of Indonesian Elderly Can Identify Hoaxes In The 2024 Election

Illustration of hoax news (photo: Directorate General of Aptika Kominfo)

JAKARTA - The elderly are among the vulnerable groups exposed to hoaxes in the digital era, especially during the election. However, this year's research from Tular Narar shows the opposite.

In the research, Tular Narar found that the hoaxes most often found were discrediting political opponents, claim achievements, unrealistic political promises and misinformation about the election results. However, the elderly did not remain silent.

As many as 91 percent of the elderly took the initiative to compare information from several sources, 84 percent sought referrals for verification, 79 percent warned others, and 57 percent reported hoaxes they met.

Meanwhile, this research also sees that as many as 81 percent of respondents consider television as a credible source of election information, while another 79 percent trust news sites.

In terms of hoax identification, although respondents have never received training on hoaxes, 62 percent claimed to have found hoaxes related to the election and were able to respond.

While the other 25 percent admitted that they had difficulty identifying hoaxes, there were even 17 percent of respondents who said they were not sure if they had found hoax content before.

Tular Narar also revealed that elderly women (79 percent) are more confident in recognizing and handling hoaxes compared to the elderly men (56 percent).

"Basically, the elderly have a high curiosity but lack awareness to be careful of the bad things that can happen," said Santi Indra Astuti, Tular Narar Program Manager in a Google blog quoted Monday, September 2.