The Ministry of Communication and Informatics found 5,726 total spread of COVID-19 hoaxes on Facebook, on IG, TikTok, Youtube too many.

Director General of Information and Public Communication of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics Usman Kansong. (photo: ANTARA dock)

JAKARTA - The Ministry of Communication and Information has again reminded the public not to create and spread hoaxes, including those related to the COVID-19 vaccine, in cyberspace.

"Let's face the transition from pandemic to endemic by clearing the digital space of hoax content related to vaccines and COVID-19 in general," said Director General of Information and Public Communication of the Ministry of Communications and Informatics Usman Kansong to ANTARA, Saturday, October 15.

Even though the COVID-19 case has started to sag, according to Usman, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics still found 546 hoax content about the COVID-19 vaccine on social media as of October 2, 2022.

Based on official data from the Ministry of Communication and Information, the COVID-19 vaccine hoax was spread on various social media platforms that are popular in Indonesia. The Ministry of Communication and Informatics found that the content was distributed thousands of times.

Hoaxes about the COVID-19 vaccine are most widely spread on the Facebook platform, with the distribution of content reaching 3,088. There are also many COVID-19 vaccine hoaxes circulating on Twitter, with 140 distributions.

In addition to the two platforms, the Ministry of Communications and Informatics also found hoaxes about the COVID-19 vaccine spread on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube, with 21, 30, and 43 contents respectively.

The Ministry of Communication and Informatics has taken down all the COVID-19 vaccine hoaxes spread on Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube as of October 2, totaling 3,322.

The Ministry of Communication and Informatics found 2,240 hoax issues related to COVID-10 from January 23, 2020 to October 2, 2022. The distribution of the content reached 6,504.

Facebook is still the platform that most frequently spreads COVID-19 hoaxes. A total of 5,726 of the total spread of COVID-19 hoaxes were found on Facebook.

The Twitter platform is the second largest in terms of the spread of COVID-19 hoaxes, with 615 distributions. Of that number, only 582 were taken down, others are still in the process. The COVID-19 hoax was also spread on TikTok (56 distributions), YouTube (55) and Instagram (52).

Of the total 6,504 spread of COVID-19 hoax content, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics has reduced 6,178. While 326 others are being followed up.

In addition to lowering content, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics also submitted 767 COVID-19 hoaxes to be followed up by legal action as of October 2.

Usman said the hoax was brought to justice if it was disturbing and had the potential to disrupt public order.