Confusing Misinformation Experiment From Expert Staff Of The Ministry Of Communication And Information

Screenshot of Henry Subiakto's post (Twitter @RavioPatra)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kemenkominfo) continues to campaign not to spread hoax information on social media. But what happens if the Minister's expert staff, Henry Subiakto, is caught posting wrong information on Twitter.

The content contained a person who dueled on a train and was told, "There is a racist phenomenon in the US. Caucasians hate Asian faces. This is an Indonesian child in San Diego, the US being attacked by foreigners. He is Anton Karundeng, an org from Menado Surabaya. The foreigner does not know that Anton good at fighting. This video is from Peter F Gontha's FB. "

The video footage was uploaded on March 31, today, at 7:15 a.m. It did not take long, for the Professor of FISIP UNAIR was admonished by netizens who ended up deleting the post.

"Hello @henrysubiakto, make it a habit to check information before sending it on social media. @Kemkominfo please give this a hoax stamp. Together we stop disinformation !!," wrote activist Ravio Patra on his Twitter account.

Later, Henry claimed that the post was just an experimental form. According to him, misinformation content circulates a lot in WhatsApp groups and Facebook networks.

I actually experimented on purpose, what had been scattered for a long time in many WA groups and FB, when I tried to upload it to Twitter, it turned out that the reaction on Twitter was faster in correcting content, especially on an account that has clear owner. Only an hour has corrected a lot. That's great. Thanks. pic.twitter.com/FnzfaUZcC0

- Henry Subiakto (@henrysubiakto) March 31, 2021

Henry explained that Hoaks is a form of misinformation and is deliberately disseminated with the intention of tricking many people from the real facts. He also argued that if not all misinformation could be said to be hoax.

"But not all misinformation is a hoax, it depends on the intention. Especially when talking about the law, something is said to violate the law, it must comply with the existing elements, including the intention and the article that was violated," he wrote.

Regarding the post that was deleted, Henry said it was also part of the experiment. He found that netizens on Twitter tend to be more critical and excited about other people's mistakes.

"If the content is mudzarot, please delete it. And it turns out that on Twitter there are a lot of accounts that are happy to find mistakes. Yes, please. I tweet at the same time observing and feeling it. So it is proven on social media that many people are eager to be critical and tend to attack people hard without fear of risk. "he said.