Menkominfo Becomes Twitter Trend After Omnibus Law TV Debate

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Twitter saw the hashtag Menkominfo [the communication and informatics minister] ranked in the social media’s trending topic in Indonesia with over 3,676 tweets about the ministry. This comes after Kominfo Minister Johnny G. Plate made a statement about the controversial omnibus job creation law as he appeared in the TV program Mata Najwa on Wednesday evening.

The TV show hosted by seasoned journalist Najwa Shihab saw Minister Johnny argue with Asfinawati, director of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation (YLBHI) regarding the hoaxes and disinformation surrounding the passing of the omnibus law. 

The YLBHI director argues that the government had contributed to the spread of disinformation due to ‘dumbing down’ or oversimplifying how it explains the omnibus job creation. YLBHI believes the “disinformation creators” are those that do not want to go into details and prefer conclusion-based answers. 

“If you don’t want to be accused of spreading hoax, then let us debate. I want to know whether the President’s peers have read [the omnibus draft],” said Asfinawati.

In response, Johnny firmly denies that the government had spread disinformation and maintains that the government is standing on the documents agreed by Level I House of Representatives (DPR). 

“We know the material that we have and compare them to what has emerged in public. That process is how we differentiated the hoaxes,” said Johnny. “The debate forum was open as the law was drafted. If you wanted to debate that would have been the time. Aren’t you terrific?”

Read also: Comm. Ministry Targets Nation-wide Internet Access by 2019

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