"Election political rivalry in digital space that abuses hoaxes, fake news, identity politics, and firehose of falsehood propaganda, as occurred in the 2019 election, should not happen in the 2024 election," Deputy Head of the National Police's Criminal Investigation Agency Inspector General Asep Edi Suheri noted in his statement received here on Wednesday.
Suheri drew attention to the ministry's survey on the post-2019 election for which results showed that some 67.2 percent of hoaxes or fake news on social media were related to political issues.
In the 2024 election, candidates must use cyberspace responsibly.
"That is competing with each other through work programs, visions, and positive ideas, so that polarization does not take place and the public can evaluate objectively and pick leaders, who will be able to make Indonesia better," he added
Suheri also appealed to those directly or indirectly involved to partake in maintaining peace by safeguarding against people, who abused cyberspace for personal and group interests, especially those that can divide national unity.
In an effort to maintain an orderly public space ahead of the election, the National Police and the ministry have signed a memorandum of understanding that arranges items, such as prevention of the spread, use of disinformation, and contents that are banned in cyberspace or social media.
It renews the earlier memorandum of understanding between the two entities. The initiative aims to improve collaboration on tasks and functions in communication and informatics aspects between them.
The memorandum of understanding covers matters on data and information exchange, prevention of the sharing and use of electronic information or documents with banned contents.
It also addresses security assistance, law enforcement, provision and utilization of facilities and infrastructure, and capacity building and utilization of human resources.
A clean, healthy, and productive national cyberspace is expected to be realized through the new memorandum of understanding.
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Translator: Putu Indah Savitri, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Sri Haryati
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