"In (Indonesia's chairmanship of) the ASEAN this year, the Communication and Informatics Ministry has led the drafting of the ‘Guideline for Combating Fake News and Disinformation,’ which is expected to be a guide for ASEAN countries," Director General of Public Information and Communication at the ministry Usman Kansong said here on Thursday.
An "ASEAN Workshop on Guideline on Management of Government Information in Combating Fake News and Disinformation" was held on March 2, 2023, in Jakarta.
Kansong said that the Indonesian Government has invited ASEAN countries to formulate guidelines together as they are also experiencing hoaxes.
The spread of false information in Southeast Asia usually occurs during major events, he pointed out.
For instance, a report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in 2021 showed that hoaxes were rising during the COVID-19 pandemic.
In addition, hoaxes are often spread in Southeast Asia during political years such as during general election implementation, according to the journal article Fake News and the Pandemic in Southeast Asia written by Robert Smith and Mark Perry.
In Indonesia, the Communication and Informatics Ministry has been tasked with handling the problem of hoaxes.
According to a report from the ministry's Directorate of Informatics Applications, three initiatives are being carried out by the government to deal with hoax content.
The initiatives start from the upstream level, where they focus on increasing human resource capacity through digital literacy in order to make people wiser when it comes to analyzing information.
The next initiative is collaborating with social media operators to strengthen supervision and take action on false information circulating on social media.
Finally, on the downstream side, the ministry is collaborating with several agencies and the law enforcement institution to directly handle cases related to hoax content.
Since ASEAN countries are facing the same problem, the development of guidelines is expected to help optimize cooperation in fighting hoaxes.
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Translator: Livia K, Kenzu
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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