…we want to educate that there are political ethics that must be paid attention to in using social media.
Jakarta (ANTARA) - The Ministry of Communication and Information has urged netizens to use social media wisely and remain polite and ethical in cyber interactions as the country is entering a political year.

This is to curb the emergence of political disinformation, hate speech, and hoaxes, it explained.

Director general of public information and communication at the ministry Usman Kansong, here on Monday, also appealed to social media users to stay ethical in choosing words and diction, among other things.

"In the context of politics, we want to educate that there are political ethics that must be paid attention to in using social media," he said.

He then asked netizens to uphold the values of Indonesian culture, the state ideology of Pancasila, the Unitary State of the Republic of Indonesia (NKRI), the Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity), local wisdom, and religious values while interacting in cyberspace.

According to Kansong, the ministry is committed to securing the public digital space, especially in the run-up to the 2024 General Elections. It has prepared a mechanism to safeguard digital space from the upstream to the downstream.

"From the upstream, we are carrying out a preventive and educative digital literacy (program) through four pillars, namely digital skills, digital ethics, digital culture, and digital security," he informed.

On the downstream side, the ministry has devised a corrective mechanism to monitor negative or forbidden content, such as hate speech, hoaxes, pornography, or political disinformation.

Under the mechanism, members of the general public can file reports regarding pornography, disinformation, hoaxes, or even hate speech on the aduankonten.id web page.

"If we find there is a violation, we will ask the platform to take down the content. Then by utilizing mainstream media, our channels, and other ministries or institutions, we convey to the public that the information is a hoax or disinformation," he explained.

Then, the ministry is also coordinating with the National Police (Polri), the General Elections Commission (KPU), and the General Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) to take action against those proven to have committed violations.

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Translator: Ahmad Faishal, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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