TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Insp. Gen. Gatot Edi, chief of the police's Nusantara Task Force, a team specializing in curbing sectarian issues online, said hate speech group the Family Muslim Cyber Army (The Family MCA) spread fake news on the attacks against ulemas for political reasons.
“They had a political motive after we investigated it,” Gatot said on Monday, March 5, at the Indonesian National Police headquarters.
According to Gatot, the two syndicates intentionally disseminate false information to stir up turbulence between the public and the government. After they succeed to do that, the group would create a false opinion suggesting the government has failed to stem the situation.
According to Gatot, the Family MCA and Saracen attempted to degrade the government to build a public opinion that the government has failed.
Police discovered that there were 45 cases of religion-related attacks that went viral throughout social media. Unsurprisingly, according to Gatot, there are only three cases of attacks that actually took place and had elements to support them, such as having a suspect, victim, and witness.
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“The rest of them are all hoaxes,” Gatot enthused.
Gatot discovered there were three types of hoax that were often spread by irresponsible people. Firstly, when the incident took place and it was intentionally made viral, secondly; the incident did take place but the details of the victim were changed to an ulema. Thirdly; the incident and victims were non-existent but were still made viral by stating that an attack took place against ulemas.
The police's cyber-criminal investigation agency chief, Sr. Comr. Fadli Immran, said that authorities discovered a link between hoax attacks against ulemas and the testimonies of former Saracen and Family MCA members.
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