SIM Card Registration Program Will Expose Hoax Spreaders

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo positively welcomed the move to require mobile phone owners to register their SIM cards. Tjahjo expects the program initiated by Communications and Informatics Ministry can prevent hoax and hate speech disseminations.

“The data collection is also expected to expose people who spread hoaxes or slanders on social media,” Tjahjo said in Yogyakarta on Tuesday, October 31.

According to Tjahjo, the dissemination of hoax, slander, and hate speech on social media could disrupt order in the country. Therefore, he added, the SIM card registration program would be a beneficiary in the long run.

Read: Prepaid SIM Card Registration Period Officially Opens Today

“If [phone numbers] are registered, cell phones [owned people who spread hoaxes] can be easily traced even if they frequently change their numbers,” the minister said.

In relation to hate speech spread via telecommunication means, Tjahjo explained, the perpetrator can be traced even without SIM card validation. However, he admitted that it would take a longer time.

The Communications and Informatics Ministry announced that millions of mobile phone users registered their numbers within a minute of the launch of the program on Tuesday, October 31. Mobile phone users are required to register as late as February 28, 2018.

The Ministry’s spokesperson Noor Iza claimed that about six million mobile phone users have registered their SIM Card numbers on Tuesday, even though the program had not been officially launched.

PRIBADI WICAKSONO