"The meeting with the Sri Lankan Minister of Mass Media and Information has discussed the government's effort in tacking misinformation and disinformation," Plate noted in his press statement on Friday.
Plate highlighted that his ministry had segregated measures to tackle the circulation of hoax, misinformation, and disinformation in the upstream, middle-stream, and downstream phases.
"At the upstream level, we will teach digital literacy and educate residents to disseminate only accurate and positive information to prevent the distribution of negative social media contents," the minister explained.
The ministry will also collaborate with local communities, academics, the private sector, and relevant stakeholders to conduct mass campaigns and classes on digital literacy, he remarked while adding that the ministry targets 50 million residents to be digitally literate by 2024.
Digital literacy is one of the main foundations and is a sustainable solution to develop public resilience against hoaxes and misinformation, he affirmed.
Regarding measures pertaining to the middle-stream phase, the minister affirmed the government has taken prompt action to remove negative social media contents and websites, digital platforms, and social media accounts that spread false information.
"The ministry actively monitors and conducts efforts to prevent the distribution of dangerous content on the internet. For instance, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Directorate General of Informatics Application's AIS team has utilised a web crawling system to detect the dissemination of COVID-19-related hoaxes in social media," Plate expounded.
According to the minister, the authority has submitted a total of 5,727 social media contents labelled as a hoax for removal on several social media platforms used in Indonesia.
Plate noted that for the downstream phase, the ministry has collaborated with the Police's Criminal Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) to conduct law enforcement activities.
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"For the downstream phase, we have collaborated with law enforcement agencies, such as the Police, to take correct action in preventing the distribution of false information and hoaxes online," Plate remarked.
The minister confirmed that he would follow up on Alahapperuma's proposal on student exchange between Indonesia and Sri Lanka with the relevant authority.
"The meeting with the Sri Lankan minister also discusses cooperation opportunity in the education sector. I will follow up on the minister's proposal for a student exchange programme and would forward the proposal to Minister of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology Nadiem Makarim," Plate remarked.
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Translator: Arnidhya Nur Z, Nabil Ihsan
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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