TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Police`s Criminal Investigation Department (Bareskrim) revealed that the institution received around 1,400 reports on hoax information that circulated the internet throughout 2017.

“It’s even nearly reached 1,000 reports in April 2018 alone,” said Bareskrim’s cyber sub-directorate Head Adj. Comm. Bayu Harnanto today, April 24.

Bayu’s statement was intended to engage members of the public to be involved in the war against hoax information throughout the social media realm. Police Spokesman Insp.
Gen. Setyo Wasisto explained that 60 percent of information circulating on social media are hoaxes.

Read: Govt to Launch Anti Hoax Portal on Friday

Setyo reminded the public to filter out the information they receive since hoaxes are mostly produced and spread by smart people with ill-intent, however, he said that the most dangerous ones are hoaxes spread by the ignorant people.

In the same occasion, University of Indonesia’s political science sociologist Devi Rahmawati explained that hoaxes are commonly spread not by people with bad intentions but with the intent to be seen as a hero in the society.

“Especially if [the hoax] is given the like button, that would legitimize their sense of heroism,” said Devi Rahmawati. She also explained that hoaxes would normally be received from people’s closest relatives, which the content’s authenticity would not be questioned.

M Julnis Firmansyah