"I never made such a statement. It is groundless, and created in a blog, not in the mainstream media," he told journalists at the National Police headquarters here on Thursday regarding the proliferated fake news.
The police have been chasing the creator of the fake news who has attempted to turn him against the ulemas, General Tito Karnavian said, adding that the police would basically handle a mass movement of people in accordance with existing procedures.
During any mass movement of people, the police would start with persuasive measures before stepping up to forceful ones, he said.
The fake news which was spread through Facebook was entitled "HRS (Habib Rizieq Syihab) will conduct a people power, the police: we are ready to shoot on sight those disrupting the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia though they are the grandchildren of Prophet".
In response to this case, the National Police's public relations division and the Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Informatics have marked this statement as a "hoax" on their websites.
In connection with this year's general elections, the proliferation of fake news, hate speeches, and slander across social media platforms has become a serious problem.
Being aware of the danger of proliferated fake news, hate speeches, and slander, Indonesia's cyber communities, including bloggers, vloggers, YouTubers, and content creators met in Jakarta on March 21.
They had declared a movement calling for posting prayers across a variety of social media platforms, Chairman of the event's organizing committee Hafyz Marshal said in a press statement that Antara received.
Zulfikar Akbar, a social media influencer who attended the meeting, called on community members to exercise critical thinking to suppress political conversations on various issues that could disrupt the nation's unity.
"Political conversations are prone to hoaxes. Hence, please be cautious every time you receive political news. Make sure that your alarm of cautiousness is always on, and do not get accustomed to taking whatever is going viral for granted," he said.
Translator: Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Bambang Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
