The problem of fake news has recently become a huge issue in many countries as those who spread hoaxes become increasingly savvy at using them to manipulate public opinion and politics. Indonesia is certainly no exception to this phenomenon, with the government having already blocked numerous news sites for spreading misinformation and setting up an agency to fight the problem as well.
Social media is obviously the biggest conduit through which fake news spreads, and so the Indonesian government says it is talking to representatives from the world’s two largest social media companies, Twitter and Facebook, to help find ways to combat it.
Minister of Communications and Information Technology Rudiantara said he has already met with the management of Twitter Indonesia, and that they would soon have a meeting with representatives of Facebook as well.
“So we are are going to work more together with content providers also. We’ve sent a letter to Facebook and they are coming this week,” Rudiantara said on sidelines of an anti-hoax event on Sunday as quoted by Kompas.
Rudiantara did not specify what the government’s agenda was when meeting with the social media companies but said that he hoped they could find ways to reduce or even eliminate hoaxes from circulating in the community.
Facebook, for its part, has said that it would combat fake news by relying on third-party fact-checking organizations which would verify selected links being shared on the social network. Stories that had been through the process would have those fact-checks attached to their original links and that content would be given higher visibility on Facebook’s newsfeed.
The third-party fact check organizations Facebook is working with are all members of the Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network. It includes organizations from countries around the world, but unfortunately there is not yet such an organization from Indonesia.
