VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

One piece of little news in the long weekends circulated that the police are looking for a Sampang resident who published hoaxes or fake news on his social media accounts. It said that in Lar Village, Sampang, Madura, East Java, there was a bloody riot which resulted in many victims. Maybe, this can be considered little news because the perpetrator is not a public figure and the location of the incident is not in a big city. However, what is interesting is that law enforcement for spreading fake news has actually reached remote areas in Indonesia.

The spread of hoaxes can have a troubling impact. So, it is necessary to carry out strict law enforcement. In addition, the perpetrator is said to have spread fake news that has gone viral on social media more than once.

Law enforcement against the perpetrator who spread fake news should be strictly enforced. In the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic today, there is a tendency for people to increasingly rely on social media for information, even with a very high level of trust. It seems as if anyone could upload any content very easily and then spread it and could be read by everyone. This is, of course, a new challenge for law enforcers because very often, the contents are things that are disturbing to the community.

The circulation of hoaxes, misinformation and disinformation is not easy to stop. In the last three years, the number of hoaxes spread across various platforms in Indonesia has continued to grow significantly.

It is necessary to raise awareness among people to be more careful in spreading any content or information on social media. In a country with a very large geographical location with a population of diverse ethnicities and backgrounds, such as Indonesia, the impact of hoaxes or fake news can indeed be very detrimental. Therefore, education about healthy and useful contents needs to be continuously provided in order to form a wise culture in social media.