"Cyberspace is filled with many kinds of information, whether it is positive— but what is also prevalent is negative content, even misinformation, even hoaxes. We have the data. Until February, 9,417 instances of hoaxes were discovered," director of informatics empowerment at the Communication and Informatics Ministry Bonifasius W. Pudjianto stated.
Pudjianto delivered the statement at a discussion during the "Education Sector Digital Literacy Kick Off" event here on Thursday, February 23.
Pudjianto stated that digital literacy served as a key for people to counter misinformation, hoaxes, and frauds.
The ministry consistently pursues efforts to boost the public's digital literacy through efforts, including collaborative works with universities, by hosting lectures that involve the ministry and experts on that topic.
Moreover, the digital literacy program will be integrated with some of the students' activities, such as student study services (KKN). Thus, it is expected that students could further educate people on digital literacy, he added.
"We expect that by the process of students giving education on digital literacy to people, it can reduce the chances of the spread of information that is misinforming as well as hoaxes that spread in cyberspace," he remarked.
He expected that the collaboration will improve the national digital literacy rate. Currently, Indonesia scores 3.54 on the scale of five in digital literacy, which makes the rate rather average or medium.
"We truly expect that this collaboration program can improve the digital literacy index that we gauge at the end of 2023," he said.
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Translator: Fathur Rochman, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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