Digital Literacy Urgently Needed

Kompas/Agus Susanto

The spread of hate speech and fake news on social media has been a hot topic of discussion in Indonesia, with many people resisting content that gives rise to intolerance.

The digital revolution that gave birth to social media has shaken up society. On social media, everyone can produce whatever content they want.

The shock to society has also occurred in Indonesia. The trigger is Saracen, which has been accused of producing content in exchange for commercial compensation. Unfortunately, the content produced by Saracen is negative, in the form of slander, lies, and hate-speech based on ethnicity, religion, race and societal groups (SARA). These content, which are not productive for this nation, were ordered in the interest of power politics or general elections, according to the police investigation.

Saracen constitutes the downstream of a number of problems. The National Police are still investigating who are behind Saracen and who ordered the negative content from Saracen. It was reported that three people were arrested. A number of people will be questioned. President Joko Widodo has ordered the National Police to thoroughly investigate the case.

Let the legal process run in line with existing regulations, without hampering the freedom to express opinions or criticisms. However, opinions and criticisms must follow the laws and general decency.

In that context, we also agree with Communications and Information Minister Rudiantara and National Defense Institute (Lemhannas) governor Agus Widjojo  to promote digital literacy. Digital literacy has to involve all elements of society to prepare it to think critically in responding to the abundance of digital information. We must educate society to be skeptical of the abundant negative content in cyberspace.

The active role of religious organizations, political organizations, and also professional organizations is needed to counter negative content. Joint campaigns against hoaxes have to be carried out. Society also needs to be prepared to counter the negative content by reporting them to service providers.

Social media providers, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, and Google, facilitate the existence of content providers, whether they are positive or negative.The increasingly rich content on those platforms encourage tantalizing business opportunities. These providers profit from the content produced by the digital community. It is here that the providers’ moral responsibility is required.

Social media providers should not, in the name of freedom for freedom’s sake, feel that they are not responsible for the presence of damaging negative content. It is the government‘s duty to push the providers to take responsibility for the presence of negative content. The Indonesian government has the authority to force these providers to share responsibility in the content that is released through their platforms.