Yogyakarta, 13 March 2019 – 5 speakers were present during the nationhood workshop, entitled “Managing False News and Information Distortions Within Electoral Politics.” This workshop was held by the Department of Politics and Government Fisipol UGM, Polgov Research and the Presidium of Indonesia’s Anti False News Society (Malfindo) on Wednesday (13/3) at the West Hall of Fisipol UGM.
According to Septiaji Eko Nugroho, from Mafindo, the main challenge that Indonesia faces is how to counter false news. “We can learn from Myanmar, which has been plagued with hoaxes and this led to a genocide towards the Rohingya people.”
Hoaxes can damage the public’s rationality, lower the quality of democracy and erode the legitimacy of the organizers of the elections. Post-truth is also one of the factors that can lead to distortion.
Pipit Subiyanto, from the General Criminal Investigation Directorate of the Special Region of Yogyakarta’s Police, also explained that hoaxes exist due to the decline in ethical values. “Thus, two-way communications can decrease the spread of false news. Hopefully, there will be coordination and collaborations instead of miscommunications.”
The Vicar-General of the Semarang, Archbishopric, R.D. Yohanes Rasul Edy Purwanto, said that there are at least three keys; intelligence and wisdom, the ability to judge and the ability to act. Such skills allow readers to have their own discretions.
Iqbal Aji Daryono, a socio-political observer that is popular in social media platforms, explained why positive issues are relatively hard to spread. According to him, some actors benefit from conflicts that emerge between the civil society and the industry.
The last speaker, Abdul Gaffar Karim, a political observer from Universitas Gadjah Mada, stated that the existence of hoaxes cannot be eradicated. “If you receive hoaxes, one thing that you can do is to prevent further spread.” Each individual has their own responses when it comes to hoaxes, he stated.
This event was held in order to rally the public against false news and information distortions. This is in line with Erwan Agus Purwanto’s (the Dean of Fisipol) speech, which stated that democracy in Indonesia has only started around two decades ago, and democracy has reached its place in Indonesia as it is today through a long journey with various obstacles along the way. Furthermore, he hoped that information distortions can be mitigated well.