Kominfo Ministry Logs 171 Election Hoaxes in 2023, Less than 2019 Election

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Director General of Information and Public Communication at the Ministry of Communication and Informatics (Kominfo), Usman Kansong, said the ministry recorded a slight increase in the number of hoaxes during this year's election campaign period.

“This is the third week of the campaign period. There are not many [hoaxes]. From January to December 13, there are 171 hoaxes,” Usman said at the Ritz Carlton Jakarta, on Monday, Dec. 18.

Usman did not specify the number of fake news during the three-week campaign period. However, he said the number had decreased compared to the previous election in 2019. "There is a high disparity because of many factors. One of them is digital literacy," he added.

Usman also said that the ministry had taken action against false content, such as stamping it with "hoax" and removing the content.

The ministry also worked with law enforcement agencies to arrest perpetrators. Specifically for the elections, the ministry worked with the National Police, the Attorney General's Office, and the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) in the Integrated Law Enforcement Team, or Gakumdu.

“We handle the content. The Kominfo does not name [a perpetrator] as a suspect,” Usman added. “To date, no one has been charged. We just took it (the content) down and stamped it as a 'hoax'.”

Kominfo Deputy Minister Nezar Patria called on the public to exercise cautionand filter out disinformation and misinformation during the current election event. “We need to break the chain,” he said.

Nezar opined that consumers of information must be able to filter the content they access and identify the quality of the information they receive.

RIRI RAHAYU

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