TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Google Indonesia says it is willing to tackle hoax stories or fake online news. “We are very open to cooperation with anyone,” Google Indonesia’s head of public policy and governmental relations Shinto Nugroho said after Google News Lab training for journalists at the Press Council building in Jakarta, on Thursday, February 2, 2017.

Information from various websites will show up after key words are typed on Google Search column. Shinto said that Google Search box is a search platform, not a news generator. It means that Google needs to cooperate with other parties to filter incoming information.

Google had earlier joined forces with communities in various countries, which include fact-checking websites to tackle hoax reports. “We want to implement it in Indonesia,” Shinto said.

Indonesia has seen a sharp rise in the number of fake news. President Joko Widodo himself has instructed his subordinates to tackle the spread of hoaxes. “The President has instructed [me] to take harsher measures in response to fake news on social media,” the Minister of Communication and Informatics Rudiantara said Thursday in Jakarta.

The government views that the prevalence of fake news has led to growing unrest among Indonesians. One of the most notorious hoaxes was the rumor of 10 million Chinese migrant workers influx into Indonesia. Rudiantara said that the ministry has been reacting more quickly to filtering information. “Prosecution process has already been done.”

ANTARA | ADITYA BUDIMAN