Jakarta, The Indonesia Sentinel – The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (Kominfo) in Indonesia’s Chairmanship of the ASEAN 2023 forum invites member countries to jointly create guidelines for handling fake news or hoaxes.
This was done because the challenges of hoax circulation in society were also experienced by ASEAN member countries.
“So far, Kominfo has compiled a Guideline for Combating Fakenews and Disinformation. It is hoped that this will become a guide for ASEAN countries in combating hoaxes,” said the Director General of Public Information and Communication (Dirjen IKP) of Kominfo, Usman Kansong, Thursday (6/4/2023) in Jakarta.
In general, the Guideline will provide an information management mechanism that is adaptive to developing issues, both in the media and society, in each country.
“Based on Indonesia’s experience in managing public communication from various issues, the steps outlined in this Guideline can strengthen the capacity and capability of government officials in detecting and responding to fake news and disinformation in the community,” Usman said.
The circulation of hoaxes, especially in the Southeast Asian region, often occurs during major events, such as the COVID-19 pandemic or political years in each country. The 2021 Center For Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report, for example, revealed the rampant circulation of hoaxes during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Then a journal entitled “Fake News and the Pandemic in Southeast Asia” written by Robert Smith and Mark Perry revealed that hoaxes in Southeast Asia also often occur during political years where general elections take place.
Therefore, Usman said, the Indonesian government through the Ministry of Communication and Information, issued three hoax handling initiatives.
The first is upstream handling by increasing the capacity of Human Resources (HR) through digital literacy. “So that people are wiser in analyzing the information they get,” said Usman.
Second, is to collaborate with social media managers to strengthen supervision and prosecution of perpetrators of spreading false information on social media.
Finally, on the downstream side, Kominfo, said Usman, cooperates with agencies and institutions such as law enforcement, to other ministries / institutions to be able to directly technically handle cases related to hoax content.
With the same problem background, the presence of a strategy guide to fight and handle fake news initiated by Kominfo will strengthen ASEAN member countries to be able to help each other deal with hoaxes more optimally.
