VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Officials involved in administering the 2019 General Election outlined the challenges stemming from the spreading of hoaxes and fake news over social media could have on the democratic process. During a Voice of Indonesia’s Diplomatic Forum themed Creating Successful Simultaneous General Elections at Jusuf Ronodipuro Auditorium, RRI Building on Tuesday, Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) Commissioner Fritz Edward Siregar told the media of the strategies that will be used to combat the spreading of false information.

“We are having problem with hate speech and hoax because of the use of social media it is more challenging than in the past. We have learnt from US, we learnt from Brazil how the social media has been used to undermine the election process, but luckily now the KPU and Bawaslu and Ministry of the Informatic and other government agencies like the cyber intelligence unit and the police are working to combat this faster than before, said Siregar.

Dr Siregar said that Bawalsu had engaged with Facebook and Youtube to create a public service announcement to stop the spread of hoaxes.

According the election commissioner the public will now be aware that not only the producer, but also the distributor of hoaxes will be criminally liable. Dr Siregar advised citizens to “think before they share” information sources. (VOI/STEPHEN/AHM)