Head of the reporting sub-division of the ministry's public relations bureau, Taupiq Hidayat, affirmed that due to the cross-sectoral collaboration, an upsurge of hoaxes, as seen during the 2019 General Elections, will not occur next year.
"At that time (2019), hoaxes increased up to two times ahead of the General Elections," he noted during the "Dialectics of Democracy: Anticipating Hoaxes Ahead of the 2024 General Elections" discussion here on Thursday.
Hidayat said that the ministry has forged collaboration with the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the General Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), among others, to tackle hoaxes ahead of the elections.
Apart from disseminating information to the public on election procedures and mechanisms, the three parties are coordinating the handling of false, incorrect, and misleading information in the digital space.
Through the collaboration, it is expected that false information can be deleted and stopped from being distributed faster to maintain a conducive situation ahead of the elections.
For enforcing regulations and laws related to political hoaxes, the ministry is also strengthening collaboration with the National Police (Polri).
Hidayat said that his ministry is also building communication with political parties and encouraging them to support the peaceful elections narrative.
The ministry is also routinely handling hoaxes through several mechanisms that have been implemented.
As a preventive measure, the ministry has continued to intensify the improvement of digital talents' capacity through digital literacy classes and is encouraging them to use cyberspace wisely.
Furthermore, the ministry is also routinely responding to and receiving complaints on hoaxes, carrying out a 24/7 cyber patrol, and utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) to identify hoaxes, misinformation, and disinformation in cyberspace.
In response to the potential of AI utilization for the creation of hoax content, he affirmed that the ministry is continuously trying to work with AI experts to anticipate this.
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Translator: Livia Kristianti, Raka Adji
Editor: Azis Kurmala
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