President Jokowi’s verified Facebook page
The Cabinet Secretary confirmed that President Joko Widodo’s blue-tick verified Facebook and Twitter accounts are not the official channels of the State Palace. So who’s been responsible for their upkeep? Especially Jokowi’s Facebook page, which has been regularly updated with posts seemingly from the president himself.
It turned out that this is a case of a former employee finding it hard to move on from his last job.
PDI-P politician Aria Bima, who was heavily involved in Jokowi’s presidential campaign, created the Facebook account for the campaign. He also knows the administrator who was responsible for maintaining the account.
“The account was created by the official KPU-approved campaign team which was stationed in the Jalan Cemara office, and the account was verified by Facebook,” Aria said, as quoted by CNN Indonesia yesterday.
“But Berry, the guy who usually maintains the account, can’t be found.”
Quite dangerously, Aria believes that Berry is still updating the account using Jokowi’s “voice.”
“He (Berry) feels the account is his and he said he knows exactly how Jokowi thinks so he can imagine what to write on the account,” Aria said.
“Jokowi never posted from the account. The account can no longer be used, as it seems like Jokowi himself is posting updates. That’s against the law.”
The State Palace might want to put a stop to Jokowi’s verified social media accounts since it is clear that they aren’t the president’s official channels. Any more updates from the accounts could be construed as misinformation to the millions of followers.
