Police Tackle 41 Cases of Hoaxes about COVID-19 Spread

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The Indonesian Police tackled 41 cases of hoaxes on COVID-19 spread through social media and will continue to conduct cyber patrolling, spokesman of the Indonesian Police Insp. Gen Mohammad Iqbal stated.

"We are conducting round-the-clock cyber patrols. It involves all of us, comprising the Criminal Investigation Unit (Bareskrim), as well as the Provincial, District, and Sub-district Police. We are conducting the legal process for 41 cases of hoax spread on coronavirus," Iqbal remarked here on Monday.

In addition to law enforcement, he noted that the police had continued to educate the public and fight hoaxes with counter-narratives.

"We make an appeal to the public to come up with counter-narratives, and we have a team in various units to make these counter-narratives and to educate netizens," he remarked.

Iqbal urged the public to reassess any information pertaining to COVID-19 that went viral on social media.

"I called on netizens to not take unfiltered information. Recheck it first, especially for information on coronavirus. Filtering before sharing," he explained.

As of Thursday (March 19), the police had named 30 suspects in 30 cases of COVID-19-related hoaxes.

The Communication and Informatics Ministry reported at least 267 novel coronavirus hoaxes in Indonesia during the period from January to March.

The ministry has attempted to minimize the spread of hoaxes on coronavirus by providing accurate and credible information to the public.

ANTARA