Community Initiatives to Raise Awareness about Hoaxes

KOMPAS

The number of victims killed in the riots in Wamena, Jayawijaya Regency, Highlands Papua, Thursday (23/2/2023), increased from 10 to 12 people.

Unfounded news is increasingly prone to triggering uncontrollably aggressive reactions by the public. In recent cases, people became incited into taking the law into their own hands, which resulted in physical harm. They did it under the pretext of protecting the community in the wake of rife child abductions in several areas in Indonesia.

In Sorong Manoi District, Southwest Papua, a mob burned a woman to death on Jan. 24. The victim had been suspected of being a child kidnapper.

A month later, a similar case occurred in Sapalek village, trans-Papua Highway, Wamena, Jayawijaya regency, Papua Pegunungan. The incident on Thursday (23/2) left 12 people dead.

In North Musi Rawas regency, South Sumatra, the public’s anger was directed at five leather salespeople from Garut, West Java, on Monday (6/2) on the suspicion that they were a gang of child kidnappers. They survived the assaulting mob but their car was damaged.

In Cangkol, Cirebon, West Java, people’s suspicion about lurking child kidnappers also almost claimed the life of a man in mid-February.

Being seen loitering around, the man was expelled by local residents. However, he was found to have reappeared and watching children at play. Later, the residents learned he had a mental disorder and had run away from his home.

Also read:

> Ten Civilians Killed in Wamena, Papua Police Chief Apologizes

Back in November 2018, a man was attacked by residents using wooden planks and stones in Kendal regency, Central Java, with the mob having been incited by a false news. The victim died after undergoing several days of treatment at a hospital.

"Incidents like this will continue to happen if hoaxes are still rife with no intensive efforts to prevent them," Indonesian Anti-Slander Society (Mafindo) chairman Septiaji Eko Nugroho said.

He pointed to several factors as the triggers for people easily falling prey to fake news. One of them, he said, was a lack of literacy that made many people unable to distinguish between fact-based information and hoaxes.

In charge of Mafindo's Tular Nalar program that promotes literacy about rationality, Santi Indra Astuti said many people did not exercise critical thinking, which transformed their irritation at the issue of child abduction into uncontrollable violent acts with the intention of protecting themselves as justification.

In the absence of critical thinking, the brakes on violence will fail.

She said people tended to quickly draw up a stereotype about lurking danger on their own identification of clues based on the reported incidents, such as the type of vehicle, the attitude of suspects and their way of communication.

“In the absence of critical thinking, the brakes on violence will fail," she said.

She said an approach for the community to adopt restraint could be through religious teachings by encouraging trusted religious leaders to be more active in educating people.

”It is all due to ignorance, distrust and fear. That’s why literacy is needed. Everyone must sit together. There should be those who are able to provide an understanding for society. Among those are religious leaders,” she said.

KOMPAS/CORNELIUS HELMY

West Java Governor Ridwan Kamil inaugurated the Jabar Saber Hoaxes Team in Bandung, Friday (7/12/2018). This team is tasked with educating the public about behavior on social media.

Pivotal role

R Tommy Sutami, coordinator of the complaint management and fact checking division at the West Java administration’s anti-hoax agency called Jabar Saber Hoaks (JSH), said religious teaching should be pushed further to make adherents more critical about information through the roles of influential religious elders in society.

In its educational promotion, JSH enters Islamic boarding schools and invites the students to be more rational in filtering information. Its Kejar Tabayyun campaign, which promotes literacy about information incorporated with fun activities across West Java, has been held in 27 locations since February and is planned to run until August.

"Community elders in Indonesia are very influential, including those from the religious sector. Therefore, apart from campaigning through the media, we have also entered Islamic boarding schools so that the students are more critical and aware about false information circulating in society," he said.

Also read:

> Digital Literacy Jacks Up Critical Thinking Power

> Ongoing Challenges in Digital Literacy

Community members in Cirebon have initiated their own anti-hoax movement through a Facebook account tagged Teras Warga. With some 110,000 followers, Teras Warga has become a channel for exchanging information and education against fake news.

The account also attaches a WhatsApp number (085795141285) members can contact to send complaints, which range from fake information about job vacancies to child abductions.

“After receiving a complaint, we will immediately pass it on to the authorities. This could be the police, village officials or kuwu [village heads]. Or, we may check the news on mainstream media," Ahmad Rofahan, head of Cirebon regency’s volunteering in information and communication technology, said.

Referring to it as a small step but with a big impact, he said the initiative had proved to be able to minimize the transmission of hoaxes. He added that it was very helpful to the Cirebon administration, whose communications and informatics services were staffed by only six members.

The literacy campaign not only includes training skills in using digital media, but also understanding the benefits of cyber safety and communication ethics. He said people were warned against being easily fooled by hoaxes, provocative titles, and reminded to check dates and validate the news sources.

"Many people still need digital literacy. Hoaxes can spread because the level of literacy is low and the level of conflict is very high, making people too sensitive. In an area with a high potential for conflict, residents can easily get angered by hoaxes," he said.

This article was translated by Musthofid.