The Descriptive Analysis of Hoax Spread through Social Media in

Indonesia Media Perspective

Oktavianus Klau Lekik

Sandryones Palinggi

and Ikma Citra Ranteallo

University of Airlangga, Media and Communication Department, Social and Political Science Faculty, Dharmawangsa

Street, Surabaya, Indonesia

Bandung Institute of Technology, Telecommunication Engineering Department, School of Electronical Engineering and

Informatics, 10 Ganesha Street, Bandung, Indonesia

Bogor Agricultural University, Department of Rural Sociology, Faculty of Human Ecology, W1-L2 FEMA Building,

Kamper Street, Bogor, Indonesia 3rd

Keywords: Descriptive Analysis, Social Media, Distribution of Hoax, Media Indonesia.

Abstract: Nowadays, there is a widespread distribution of hoaxes or fake news in Indonesia. The event of spreading

fake news is very disturbing to the wider community because many parties feel disadvantaged over it. Along

with the development of technological advancements, people are getting easier to get any information from

various social media applications such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Whatsapp, so it is also easier for

those who are not responsible for spreading hoaxes. Henceforth, this study the author focuses on analyzing

the spread of hoaxes through social media in Indonesia, with the aim to be achieved by the author to find out

ways in which social media users can spread hoaxes to provoke the public. And, it aims to educate the public

to be smart and wise in consuming information that is spread on social media. Using the review literature

method is descriptive-analytical. Especially, analytical descriptive research can be used to analyze data and

facts that occur about the spread of hoaxes that are widely spread through social media. The results and

conclusions of this study that the spread of hoaxes to provoke the public is very easily spread using

information technology, and the internet through social media. This must be addressed properly by social

media users to be smarter, and wiser, by using selective reasoning to verify all news or information that is

widespread in social media, by using understanding and education of media literacy, information literacy and

technological literacy that basically as a source of truth

1 INTRODUCTION

In this study, we conducted a descriptive analysis of

the spread of hoaxes through social media, based on

Media Indonesia's perspective. The widespread

distribution of hoaxes that occur on social media

provokes caused chaos and conflicts in the

community recently. The objectives of this study are

identifying which social media users can spread

hoaxes to provoke the public and recommend

alternative ways of using and consuming information

spread on social media properly. Hence, along with

the development of technology, people are getting

easier to get any kind of information from social

media applications such as Facebook, Instagram,

Twitter, and Whatsapp so that the parties who are not

responsible for distributing hoaxes are also easier.

Social media provides a space for someone to express

their opinions and voice their thoughts that may

previously have never been able to be expressed

because of the limited space for opinion. Social media

has also become a new space for expression for the

world community in recent years.

According to Van Dijk (2013), in Nasrullah

(2017), social media is a media platform that focuses

on user extensibility that facilitates their activities and

collaborations. Therefore, social media as an online

medium (facilitator) that strengthens relationships

between users as well as a social bond.

Meanwhile, according to Boyd (2009), social

media is a collection of software that allows

individuals and communities to gather, share,

communicate, and in certain cases, collaborate or play

with each other. Social media has the power of user-

generated content (UGC). The content is generated by

276

Lekik, O., Palinggi, S. and Ranteallo, I.

The Descriptive Analysis of Hoax Spread through Social Media in Indonesia Media Perspective.

DOI: 10.5220/0009441402760286

In Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on Anti-Corruption and Integrity (ICOACI 2019), pages 276-286

ISBN: 978-989-758-461-9

users and not by the editor as well as in the mass

media institutions (Nasrullah, 2017: 11).

Since progress in 2012, Indonesians' attachment

to social media has increased. Social media, which

was initially only used as a medium to socialize with

friends and close relatives, is now beginning to

penetrate communication between individuals and

institutions. Seeing this phenomenon, people began to

look at social media as a tool to interact with others,

including to promote their products. The power of

social media to influence society is based exclusively

on the social aspects of interaction and participation

(Ardha, 2014: 106).

Agus Mario Domar (2018), in Liputan6.com,

said, based on data from the Association of

Indonesian Internet Service Provider (APJII)

regarding penetration and behavior of Internet users

in Indonesia, an unknown number of Internet users in

Indonesia has reached 143.26 million. The amount is

increased from a similar survey conducted in 2016.

According to the survey APJII, internet penetration in

Indonesia is 132.7 million, with a total population of

Indonesia is 262 million.

Based on the Brandwatch survey (2016), the facts

and social media statistics of 7.3 billion world

population as of July 2015 recorded results "that as

many as 3.7 billion internet users, as many as 2.3

billion active social media users with an average of 5

social media accounts, in 2016 social media users

rose 176 million, and every day there are 1 million

mobile social media users that are equivalent to 12

people/second "(Prasetyo, 2017).

The growth of internet users from year to year has

always increased significantly, and this has a great

impact on the events of spreading fake news, which

is increasingly being discussed by netizens in

Indonesia. The party that spreads this hoax with a

purpose, one of which is to lead public opinion and

then form a wrong perception of the actual

information.

According to Nasution (2017: 36), concluded that

the Hoax, including one form of al-qazf wearable

hudud punishment for the culprit that is 80 times the

volume. Sentencing hoax by flogging sentence based

Qiyas silent in terms of scholars Shafi'ites, or istihsan

in terms of Hanafiyah scholars. Illat the cause of that

analogy is the spread of fake news that could harm

others.

The number of active users can even be regarded

as a social media enthusiast in Indonesia is a very easy

spreader hoax in carrying out the action. From the

survey on national hoaxes plague carried by

MASTEL (2017) that the channel dissemination of

news or information that contain the highest hoax

content from social media such as facebook on the

highest order of 92.40%, 62.80% chat applications,

and websites 34.90%.

According to the website of the Ministry of

Communication and Information of the Republic of

Indonesia, throughout 2016 the Metro Jaya

Directorate of Criminal Investigation has

successfully blocked more than 300 social media

accounts and online media that disseminate

information hoaxes, provocation, until SARA (Tribe,

Religion, Race, and intergroup), from 800 thousand

sites in Indonesia which is indicated as a disseminator

of fake news and speech of hatred that is being

watched by the government.

Based on previous research conducted by Vibriza

Juliswara (2017: 142) about "Developing a Media

Literacy Model that Is Diverse in Analyzing Fake

News Information (Hoax) on Social Media" states

that misuse of social media such as spreading fake

news (hoax) has the effect of causing hostility and not

in accordance with Indonesian culture that prioritizes

tolerance. This Vibriza study develops a media

literacy model that is diverse in analyzing fake news

(hoaxes) in the news on social media. Through the

development of media literacy assessment models as

an approach that empowers users of social media

(netizens), then it is assumed netizens to be more

capable of constructing a positive charge in the use of

social media.

In the KALBIScientia Journal of Science and

Business, the Effect of Hoax and the Hate Speech of

a Cyber Crime with Simple Technology in the Social

Life of Communities (Septanto, 2018), hoax is

information that is engineered to cover up actual

information, in other words hoax is interpreted as an

effort to distort facts using convincing information

but cannot verified the truth, can also be interpreted

as an act of obscuring the actual information, by

flooding a media with the wrong message in order to

cover up the correct information.

In Indonesia, the presence of social media also

influences political, social, cultural, and economic

changes. Social media shifts and penetrates the

boundaries of hierarchical patterns of relationship

interaction to be egalitarian, both in political and

cultural space. An ordinary citizen can directly

criticize and communicate with the President, quite

simply by sending mention to the President on social

media accounts. However, poor information quality

is not even scattered massively without verified and

confirmed.

The Descriptive Analysis of Hoax Spread through Social Media in Indonesia Media Perspective

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2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The study conducts descriptive-analytical literature

review methods without using a basic assumption or

proposition, but it has begun with an outline of the

thoughts and problems that want to be analyzed.

According to Burhan Bungin (2008), the literature

method is one method of data collection used in social

research methods to track event record data.

Furthermore, the literature used by the author to

collect data includes sources from previous research,

such as journals, reference books, observation, and

documentation online in the Indonesian media that

reporting about hoax news.

3 FRAMEWORK

From the background above, the researcher thinking

framework in this study includes:

The Distribution of Hoaxes

Descriptive Analysis

Social Media

Figure 1: Framework

4 DISCUSSION

4.1 Social Media as a Containers for

Hoax News Distribution

Primada Qurrota Ayun et al. (2014: 117-119)

explained new media has come as a bridge connecting

individuals to the networking. Interactions that are

interwoven borderless dimension across time and

space boundaries. Terry Flew emphasized that new

media includes various forms of media content in the

form of data, text, sound, images, combined and

integrated videos, and distributed across networks

(Terry Flew, 2004: XVIII).

Various forms of content and interaction in social

media then give birth to a variety of forms of new

interactions. Social media is one of the trends in

communication and interaction today. Facebook,

Instagram, and Twitter are real examples of how

social media is a forum for interaction and

communication that is being loved by various new

media users. Social networks such as Facebook,

Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, a social networking

site most visited.

Jane Burns (2013) explained that some

dimensions related to social networks such as

connectivity, interactivity, and creativity. In addition,

social networking is also a container or facility that

allows individuals to express themselves, strengthen

interpersonal relationships, and foster a sense of

belonging and the birth of a collective identity. Jane

Burns' research on social networking services leads to

how about the usefulness and support of social

networking in terms of benefits for individual users.

Burns also focuses on how connectivity, interactivity,

and creativity are coming and present in social

networking space. Including, empowerment or

empowerment of the use of social media that is

actively involved in it.

The active involvement of the users in social

media opens up new spaces that are connected across

a network. These users then form a kind of virtual

community. This virtual community is a community

that together envisions their closeness and

togetherness in the same space. A community that

rests not in one physical entity but is virtually based.

Communications that pioneered also has the

characteristics of mediated communication. That is,

the interaction between the sender of the message, the

recipient of the message, and the message conveyed

through the bridge of virtual digital technology. This

mediated communication then makes changes in the

characteristics of the community heterogeneous (van

Dijk, 2006: 33).

Community interaction across the boundaries of

space and time at a certain point is inseparable from

the practices of domination. Domination here refers

to the meaning of one party's stronger control over

another weaker party. This practice of domination can

occur not only in the political sphere, but in

economics, culture, and social life. Dominance in the

terminology of Horkheimer and Adorno refers to

craze western society in view and manage the world.

Including nature, as an object that must be mastered

for human interests (Agger, 2006: 170). Horkheimer

and Adorno's outlook tends to the full range of

political, economic, cultural, social, and others.

Unlike the case with the terminology of domination

by Karl Marx that only focuses on the economic

sector alone dominance in the shape of the face of

capitalism.

For Adorno, each individual or person can fully

master the objects of both nature and others by

mastering through science or by manipulating objects

socially and technologically (Ben Agger, 2006: 173).

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Furthermore, it was explained that strategic, tactical

work could also be trimmed only by mastering

technology.

When the internet and mobile phone technology

is progressing, social media is growing rapidly. Now,

to access social media can be done anywhere and

anytime, just by using a mobile phone. Thus the speed

with which people can access social media results in

a large phenomenon in the flow of information not

only in developed countries but also in Indonesia

because the speed of social media began to appear the

spread of hoaxes.

Fake news or hoax phenomenon in Indonesia

deliberately disguised to look right; it does not escape

from the characteristics of Indonesian people who are

using social media. Thus, every day, people receive

news and information quickly through social media

devices. The government should be serious in dealing

with the spread of hoax news more firmly, the

Government of Indonesia made laws and regulations

concerning the spread of false news that was

deliberately disseminated, causing losses to those

who were dropped.

Entering 2019, the distribution of hoaxes on the

internet is increasingly alarming. This was revealed

by the Ministry of Communication and Information,

which noted that there was an increase in the

circulation of hoaxes during 2019. Minister of

Communication and Information, Rudiantara, said

that during January, it had detected more than 70

hoaxes. The amount is the total figure beat hoax that

occurred during 2018. The number of hoaxes (fake

news) for 2018 is only about 60 issues. Quoted from

KBR, the Minister of Communication and

Information, Rudiantara said that the government has

been conducting searches and always want to be

transparent. Every day the report can be seen at stop

hoax.id, there is information on the hoax that has been

verified.

According to communication expert at the

University of Indonesia Effendi Gazali, hoaxes are so

developed in the world, including in Indonesia, the

Philippines and the United States are the countries

with the fakest news, "Effendi Gazali told

JawaPos.com in the Mampang area, South Jakarta

(Monday 17 January 2017). The factor that makes

hoaxes so viral is the lack of legal certainty governing

the problem. Whereas, the rule of law is always too

late to limit the movement of hoax makers or

spreaders. As well as the lack of literacy of social

media users. Users should prioritize two-way

communication in social media. So, that scattered

hoaxes can be resisted by replying to the actual

information.

Further, based on the results of research

conducted by Ricky Firmansyah (2017), the

development of information technology has caused

the world to become borderless. Current information

technology, in addition to contributing to the

improvement of welfare, progress, and human

civilization, as well as being an effective arena of

lawlessness. Indonesia is the third-largest democracy

in the world after India and America have

experienced serious problems regarding the spread of

Fake News (Hoax). The Government, through the

Police of the Republic of Indonesia, has issued a

threat to process the law of those who spread fake

news. However, this policy was criticized as a threat

to freedom of speech. Community participation is

very necessary to participate in taking precautions

against the spread of hoax news. One of them can be

done by providing hoax news information through a

news clarification web to control the spread of hoax

news that is implemented with the PHP web

programming language and MySQL DBMS as

Software Developing Tools (Ricky, 2017: 230).

In other parts, based on the results of research

conducted by MASTEL (Indonesian Telematics

Society), the results show a political issue and SARA

(Ethnicity, Religion, Race, and intergroup), it is most

often appointed as the material for the hoax content.

Sensitive issues regarding the social, political, ethnic,

religious, racial and intergroup, used the spreader

hoax to influence public opinion, as much as 91.8%

of respondents most often received hoax about the

political and social content, such as local elections

and governance. Far different from social politics, the

issue of SARA is in second place with 88.6%.

The most accepted form of hoax content by

respondents is text as much as 62.1%, while, the rest

in the form of images as much as 37.5%, and videos

0.4%. A total of 92.4% of respondents said getting

hoax content through social media. Social media are

Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This figure is quite

far compared to websites (34.9%), television (8.7%),

News Papers (5%), email (3.1%), and radio (1.2%).

This is because people like things that are horrendous

and basically very dangerous because this can be a

behavior. Social media users can produce hoaxes to

create excitement. Furthermore, many people are

basically hoax recipients who do not believe it and

check the truth first, but most of them still have

difficulty in finding a reference (Quoted from

Mastel.id).

According to Multimedia bureau chief Public

Relations Division Police Headquarters, Brigadier

General Budi Setiawan said that the current

technological developments make it easy hoax

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spreader actors influence society, only through social

media. In 2015 the National Police Headquarters

began to register, in 2016 until 2018 there were 2,821

hoax cases handled by the National Police

Headquarters, which had been handled by the court

with 1,310 cases, "said Budi in a discussion in Cikini

area, Jakarta, Saturday (03/16/2019) (Quoted from

tribunnews.com).

Indeed, Hoax or fake news is very dangerous and

has a broad impact on society. To suppress the spread

of false news, the police conducted a campaign of

anti-hoax in the community and on campus, with

various forms to explain and appeal to the millennial

generation so thoroughly every informed. Fight hoax

by reading in full, check into credible media, check to

the source.

The existence of hoax or fake news cannot be

separated from the improvement in the ability of

telecommunications communication media. The

speed of data access, which has exponentially

increased, has made it easier for much spreading fake

news. By using a social media platform such as

Facebook and WhatsApp, the spread of fake news can

be spread by broadcast method from one user to

another.

In this case, it can be seen that network security is

very important in reducing the spread of false news,

especially news related to politics and SARA (Tribe,

Religion, Race, and intergroup). Like is done by

WhatsApp chat platform, where users are limited in

sending every news. During this time, WhatsApp

service users are spoiled with the 'forward' feature in

sharing news. The policy carried out enough to

provide a significant impact on reducing the number

of chain messages between users.

According to the website of Makassar Tribun, on

January 22th, 2019, to anticipate the spread of hoax

or fake news, the WhatsApp application is a limited

forward message feature. Forwarding messages

maximum is five contacts on WhatsApp does not only

apply in India, Indonesia, or some countries. This

feature update now also applies on a global scale.

This was also supported by the Minister of

Communication and Information. Rudiantara

expressed the government's seriousness in limiting

the spread of hoax through social media, including

through the instant messaging application platform

(Quoted from Kominfo.go.id).

One of the efforts of the government in reducing

the impact of spreading false news that causes

provocation in the community is the policy of

Limiting Partial Features of the Social Media

Platform and Instant Messaging. This policy is stated

in Press Release No. 106 / HM / KOMINFO /

05/2019, where the Minister of Communication and

Information explained how negative content and

hoaxes are transmitted through instant messages. The

Ministry of Communication and Information in detail

explains the mode in a post that is the amount of

negative content and hoax that are scattered on social

media, both through the Facebook, Instagram

network platforms that contain lots of videos, memes

and pictures, which are then screened and neutralized

through the messaging system platform like

WhatsApp (Quoted from Kominfo.go.id)

Provocation against the public regarding the fake

news is very frightening and have long-term effects.

Its spread cannot be eliminated but can be reduced as

an effort to combat fake news.

Based on the results of a survey conducted related

to how often people consume hoax news becomes a

separate benchmark of how hoax has become a

consumption of information that must be fought

immediately. The survey stated that 44.30% of

Indonesians received fake news every day, 17.20%

received fake news more than once a day, 29.80%

once a week, and 8.70% received one fake news times

one month.

In the Management and Entrepreneurship Journal

with the title of User Behavior and Hoax Information

on Social Media (Rianto Rahadi, 2017), can be seen

that the fake news information can be divided into

several categories, there are fake news, clickbait,

confirmation bias, misinformation, satire, post-truth,

and propaganda.

Fake news is news that tries to replace the original

news. This news aims to falsify or include untruth in

the news. Clickbait is a link that is placed statistically

in a site with the aim of attracting people into other

sites. The content in this link is factual, but the title is

overused, or an interesting image is attached to lure

the reader. Confirmation bias is the tendency to

interpret new events as well as evidence of existing

beliefs. Misinformation is false or inaccurate

information, especially those intended to deceive.

Satire is an article that uses humor, irony, exaggerated

things to comment on events that are warm. Post-truth

is an event in which emotions play a role rather than

facts to shape public opinion. As well as propaganda

activities spread information, facts, arguments,

gossip, half-truths, or even lies to influence public

opinion.

In the development of the Industrial Revolution

4.0, communication media became one of the

important pillars in developing the diversity of

information obtained. Exponentially, the

functionalities of communication media have

changed very much. The speed of communication has

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increased rapidly, bringing users able to get all kinds

of information available.

Artificial Intelligent (AI), which is part of the

progress of the Industrial Revolution 4.0 contributed

to the role that was generally able to reduce false news

circulating in society globally. AI is a technology in

the form of Artificial Intelligence that is programmed

in such a way that the technology or the resulting tool

will carry out orders according to the initial purpose

of its formation.

By utilizing technological advances on a wider

scale, AI is able to reduce the fake news that is widely

circulating on the internet. The significant impact will

be felt by users of social media in sorting out the news

that has an element of lying or not.

This system can be used widely, not only on

certain platforms. AI uses machine learning

technology to measure the quality of news sources.

The trick is to examine various articles from news

source sites to assess their accuracy. AI also focuses

on the language used in the article. Usually, fake

newsmakers often use words like conspiracy or

extreme. As many as 2,000 articles from the media

bias or fact check fact-checking site are used to hone

AI in order to recognize the language style of fake

articles. In fact, AI can also use an article reference

from Wikipedia on a news source to assess its

authenticity (Quoted from Side.id).

4.2 Resistance Media Literacy,

Technology, and Information,

against the spread of Hoax through

Social Media.

According to John Tillotson (1630-1694) in

Triartanto (2015: 33) etymologically, the word hoax

is believed to have existed for hundreds of years ago,

around the 1620s. Speculatively, the word hoax

originates from the word hocus from mantra hocus

pocus, which is often called a witch, like the words

"sim salabim" or "abracadabra." However, the mantra

hocus pocus originally came from Latin, hocest

corpus, which means "this is my body," which is

allegedly taken from the Mass liturgy of the Latin

Church.

The term of hocus pocus had also become the title

of a movie (1993) produced by Walt Disney and

starring Bette Midler, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Kathy

Najimy, set in the incident on the night of Halloween,

October 31, 1693. Thus, the language can not be

separated from the metaphor like the opinion of Paul

de Man, a linguist from Belgium, that all languages

are metaphoric.

Likewise, a word hoax has experienced metaphor

before. Alexander Boese on the Museum of Hoaxes

website documented, the first hoax published was a

fake almanac, created by Isaac Bickerstaff, aka

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) in February 1708. At that

time, the death of astrologer John Partridge was

predicted. To reassure the public, Swift made the

false obituary about Partridge, as well as forecast the

day of his death on March 29, 1708. The purpose of

the Swift made it, the other not only to embarrass

Partridge in public. Since then, Partridge has stopped

producing astrological almanacs for up to 6 years

after hoaxes circulated.

Not only is it a story about hoaxes. In fact, at the

beginning of 1958 in Michigan, United States, there

had been a furor because of the appearance of a

strange little blue man, which was equipped with

flashing lights on his head. The blue man often

passed, then disappeared quickly on the rural roads.

People consider it to be a kind of creature from

outside space. The police investigation ended, when

three young men named Jerry Sprague, Don Weiss,

and LeRoy Schultz had confessed. Their behavior

was inspired by the hits Little Blue Man (1958), sung

by Betty Johnson.

In the context of the cyber media, said the hoax

could be interpreted as the text used as hoaxes or the

tort of deceit spread by the media Siber to the reader

to believe everything. In the historical search, said the

hoax came from a movie based on a true story

American production titled The Hoax (2006). The

film stars Richard Gere, who acted as Clifford Irving,

a novelist who tries to make a fake autobiography of

Howard Hughes's story. About Howard Hughes, his

story was raised to the big screen by director Martin

Scorsese entitled The Aviator (2004), starring

Leonardo DiCaprio as Howard Hughes. In this film,

Hughes told as an eccentric businessman aircraft.

This film is based on the story of the life of Howard

Hughes in the book The Secret Life (1993) by Charles

Higman.

Regarding of scandal associated with a false

autobiographical book written by Clifford Irving, The

Hoax is considered as the movie contains a lot of lies.

No wonder, then many people, especially netizens,

use the word hoax as a description of something that

contains lies. It didn't take long, cyber acceleration in

spreading the term hoax was eventually used by

various countries. However, in the book Lynda Walsh

entitled Sins Against Science: The Scientific Media

Hoaxes of Poe, Twain, and Others (2006), written,

word hoax is an English term, which has been known

in the United States in the range of 1830 to 1880, the

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281

time of discovery-scientific and technological

discoveries as hoaxes (Triartanto, 2015: 33-34).

Based on the research conducted by Asep

Mughini and Eka Octalia (2018: 381), observing, in

Indonesia, the spread of hoaxes is rampant because

hoaxes are an effective tool for slandering, bullying,

provocation in political areas. Especially in the event

of a power struggle that overthrows opponents on the

general election stage. If this continues to be allowed

by hoax makers and spreaders, therefore, hoaxes will

continue to be spread by irresponsible spreaders. The

fallout was felt in harmony with nationality. Mutual

suspicion, until the friction between people, is

inevitable. On the other hand, they are fighting

arguments in various social media, with swear, insult,

even to the utterance of hatred due to fake news that

is spread.

According to Danarka Sasongko (2017) in

Tempo.co, the causes of hoaxes easily spread on

social media are: First, public literacy of messages on

social media is still low. That is what causes fake

news or hoaxes to be shared by the public on social

media. The community still cannot distinguish

between right and wrong. Indonesian regulations also

have not reached such matters. Therefore, both

aspects need to be addressed. Second, the tendency of

social media for the people of Indonesia is new. That

is why people are hurried to face the new world.

Third, the phenomenon of the spread of hoaxes on

social media also increased ahead of regional

elections or general elections. Fourth, the political

culture of the community is immature. "That results

in a lot of political hoax being consumed by the

people, the black campaign."

Inevitably, the Indonesian people are currently

experiencing a decline in terms of reading so that the

news received is not first read carefully and

investigated the truth, besides being a hobby of

netizens, is directly spreading the news to look as if

they were updated news at that time. With the

existence of digital literacy education, the untrue

news wants to reduce its circulation even if it is not

circulating. Digital literacy education is to identify a

message, whether the news is real or a hoax.

Besides that, according to Rachmah Ida (2017),

said that to reduce the impact of hoaxes that continue

to spread widely in the community, it is necessary to

provide understanding to the community. The

intended learning can be in the form of an explanation

of the use of social media and the function of the

existence of social media. Therefore, proven hoaxes

spread quickly through social media.

The community using social media not because

they knew beforehand but to receive the first and just

know. They do not know about WhatsApp, Facebook,

Instagram, etc. They use it only because of euphoria

that occurs in the community. The liabilities

academics and students to sensitize, educate, and

explain the function of social media so that they are

aware of the media. Hoaxes can not be deleted but can

be a reduced, by touching the spiritual side of social

media users, and an invitation to be wise in spreading

the news. Including the role of the government to

create a policy that must be inflamed (Ida, 2017: 6-7).

Another opinion said by Anita Wahid, the third

daughter of the fourth President of the Republic of

Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid (Gus Dur), in the

event "commemorating 100 days of the Surabaya

bombing tragedy on May 13, 2018" at the Mbah

Cokro Surabaya, emphasizing that with digital

technology growing, we chase with technology, the

ability of people make it a thousand-fold hoax

compared with our ability to eradicate or take action.

It's that we actually need to assist the Government to

make people immune from the hoax. How, by making

everyone know to distinguish news hoax with real

news, in which all people are not easily lured by news

of anything that is not easily provoked, to make

people remember that we are here together and not

easily offended (interviewed the author, August 24,

2018).

According to Cabinet Secretary Pramono Agung

in his office, Thursday (02/09/2017), hoaxes can be

overcome with the term "self-censorship." Self-

censorship is part of media literacy in which social

media users need to be selective sorting Hoax and

correct information. Self-censorship as a solution to

counteract the phenomenon of fake news or Hoax in

social media. Thereby netizens should have filters for

indirect trust the information circulating on social

media (Quoted from kompas.com).

On the other hand, to cope with the phenomenon

of hoaxes is happening, the government has

established the National Siber Agency. The new

agency is tasked with tracking the source of hoaxes

and protecting government sites from hackers. The

Agency for Cyber is the state institution from hacker

attacks, said Presidential Spokesperson, Johan Budi.

(Quoted from tribunnews.com). The coordinating

Minister for Politics and Security, Wiranto, said the

move was necessary to combat the influx of fake

news on the Internet who joined the campaign of

hatred.

Other opinions, according to the Advisor to the

Minister of Legal Affairs of the Ministry of

Communication and Information, Henry Subiakto

said, attempts 'countering hoax' can be done by using

the power of reason and references to any information

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or news received through social media (Quoted from

www.makasar.antaranews.com), that any

information or news received through social media

does not necessarily immediately be taken for

granted, but it is necessary to use reasoning power to

predict whether the news or information is true or

false. In the current era of digital technology, not only

is the content in the form of text that can be

manipulated, but also other content in the form of

photos or videos, there are even times when fake

newsmakers also edit photos to provoke readers.

In fact, "the results of the Election and Democracy

Syndication research show that students are

sometimes unable to distinguish hoaxes. Even the

professors are exposed to hoaxes". If you find an

image or news not believe the truth, then use internet

facilities 'google chromes and google image'. If the

news or images are not correct, then emerged and the

original image of both the search tool.

Furthermore, the need for various references by

visiting the government's official website on

Instagram @kemenkominfo and on twitter, or it is

necessary to use the hoax news application like `turn

back hoax.' The Government, through the Ministry of

Communications and Information Technology,

provincial and district/city, also continues to intensify

education to the community to recognize the

characteristics of hoax news. "Hoax news usually

makes anxious, information and makers are unclear,

provocative words, fanaticism and without having

5W1H elements." Communities also need to be

proactive and more mature in digesting the

information received, and if there is suspicious news,

it should be filtered by hoax testing.

Meanwhile, (Quoted from viva.co.id), Indonesian

National Police reminded the people not to spread

fake news (hoaxes) through social media. For the

spread of Hoaxes, criminal acts will be threatened

with the following articles:

Information and Electronic Transaction

Laws, articles 28:

(1) Any person intentionally and without the right

to spread fake news and misleading, resulting

in losses of consumers in Electronic

Transactions.

(2) Any person intentionally and without the right

to disseminate information intended to cause

hatred or hostility individual and/or a particular

group of people based on ethnicity, religion,

race, and intergroup (SARA).

In the chapter on the criminal provisions listed,

ITE Law spreader details hoax criminal threats.

Article 45 or 2 of the ITE Law, read every person who

fulfills the elements referred to in article 28 paragraph

1 or paragraph 2, is sentenced to a maximum of six

years in prison and/or a maximum fine of Rp 1 billion.

In addition, hoax spreaders can also be snared by

Law No. 1 of 1946 concerning Criminal Law

Regulations, and there are two articles that can

ensnare hoax spreaders, namely:

Article 14:

(1) Whoever, by broadcasting news or false

notices, intentionally issues confusion among

the people, is punished with a maximum prison

sentence of ten years.

(2) Whoever broadcasts a news or issues

notification that can publish confusion among

the people, while he/she should be able to think

that the news or notification is a lie, sentenced

to a maximum of three years in prison.

Article 15:

Whoever, broadcast the news that is uncertain or

exaggerated news or incomplete, while he/she

understood at least should be able to surmise that such

news would have been able to publish or confusion

among the people, be punished with high

imprisonment, the high two years.

4.3 The Descriptive Legal Cases of

Spreading Hoax through Social

Media

Here, the author describes some cases Hoax

disseminated through social media in Indonesia:

Source: www.viva.co.id

Picture 1: The Legal Cases Hoax Spreading by Ratna

Sarumpaet

The news of the abuse of Ratna Sarumpaet by a

group of people first circulated on Facebook in

October 2018. Then, it was neutralized via Twitter

and uploaded again and justified by several political

The Descriptive Analysis of Hoax Spread through Social Media in Indonesia Media Perspective

283

figures without verifying the truth of the news. After

a lot of discussions, hoax content was responded by

the police who conducted the investigation after

getting three reports of alleged hoaxes at the news.

Ratna is not persecuted but does plastic surgery. The

results of the police investigation showed that Ratna

Sarumpaet came to Bina Aesthetics Hospital

Menteng, Central Jakarta, on September 21, 2018,

around 17:00 o'clock.

More explicitly, the Metro Jaya Regional Police

arrested activist Ratna Sarumpaet on Thursday night,

October 4, 2018, at Soekarno Hatta International

Airport. Ratna was arrested before flying to Santiago,

Chile. The arrest was made because the police have

established Ratna Sarumpaet as the culprit in the

spread of a hoax or fake news. Ratna Sarumpaet in

the snare with articles 14 and 15 of Act Number 1 of

1946 concerning Criminal Law Regulations and

article 28 juncto article 45 of the Electronic

Information and Transaction Law (ITE Law). With a

maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.

Source: www.msn.com

Picture 2: The Legal Cases Hoax Spreading Child

Abduction

The spread of child abduction hoaxes circulating

on social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and

WhatsApp. On Twitter, hoaxes circulating state that

the kidnapping of children were caught on Jalan Kran

Kemayoran, Central Jakarta. Police Criminal

Investigation Agency (Bareskrim) arrested two

suspects who were spreading the news of child

abduction hoaxes on social media. Previously, the

Criminal Investigation Police arrested four suspects,

hoax spreader. Said the Head of the National Police

Information Bureau, Brigadier General Dedi

Prasetyo, through written information, Saturday,

November 3, 2018. Dedi said that someone was

arrested in Pasuruan Regency, East Java, on October

31, 2018. Some were arrested in Sukabumi City, West

Java, on November 2, 2018.

Earlier, investigators of the Directorate of Cyber

Crime at Bareskrim Polri had arrested four suspects

who were perpetrators of child abduction hoaxes

through Facebook. These actors to upload pictures,

videos and written content about child abduction in

Pasuruan, East Java, Sukaraja Terminal, Sentul, West

Java, and Ciputat, Tangerang, through a Facebook

account belonging to the suspects and pass it on.

Based on the results of the investigation, the motives

of the suspects to disseminate information on child

abduction hoaxes were for the public to be more

vigilant and be careful about taking care of their

children.

The actions of the suspects, in meshes with Article

51 juntco Article 35 of the Law No. 19 Year 2016

regarding Amendment to Law Number 11 Year 2008

regarding the ITE Law and Article 15 of Law No. 1

of 1946 on the Criminal Code, under penalty of a

maximum of 12 years and or a maximum fine of Rp.

12 billion.

Source: www.nasional.tempo.co

Picture 3: The Legal Cases Hoax spreading, seven

Containers Ballots that have been blasted at Tanjung Periuk

Port

The four Twitter politician accounts first

uploaded a hoax account of seven containers of

ballots that had been punched in Tanjung Priok Port,

North Jakarta, namely Fadli Zon, Fahri Hamzah,

Andi Arief, and Mustofa Nahrawardaya. The spread

of hoax through his account @bagnatara1,

mentioning the names of several politicians, though,

that account was deleted by the suspect after viral.

The hoax posted on January 1, 2019 at 23:35 is "There

is info, he said on Tanjung Priuk, found seven

containers, containing ballot papers, which had been

shot by a picture of one of the candidate pairs, "I don't

know, this is a hoax or not, let's check together to

Tanjung priok Port, Cc

@fadlizon,@AkunTofa,@AndiArief__@Fahrihamz

ah". However, the spreader @bagnatara1 account is

no longer found on Twitter.

According to the police, the spreader account

@bagnatara1 was removed by the suspect after viral.

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In fact, cellphones and cellular cards used are

disposed of to remove evidence. The next day, the

suspect made a sound recording of seven containers

of ballots punched in. The voice recording, then

distributed to the WhatsApp group that he followed,

was widely circulated. The suspect was arrested in

Sragen, Central Java, on January 7, 2019. To the

police investigators, the suspect confessed the idea of

making, uploading, and distributing hoax content

containing seven containers of ballot papers the 2019

election had been punched in Tanjung Priok, purely

the result of his own thoughts. Not certain party

orders. The police ensnared the suspect with Article

14, paragraph 1, and 2 of Act No. 1 of 1946

concerning the Criminal Law Regulations, because

they intentionally broadcast fake news. And

threatened sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in

prison.

This is in accordance with the research conducted

by Ricky Firmansyah (2017: 230) that the

development of information technology has caused

the world to become borderless. Current information

technology, in addition to contributing to the

improvement of welfare, progress, and human

civilization, as well as being an effective arena of

lawlessness. Indonesia is the third-largest democracy

in the world after India and America have

experienced serious problems regarding the spread of

Fake News (Hoax). The Government, through the

Police of the Republic of Indonesia, has issued a

threat to process the law of those who spread fake

news. However, this policy was criticized as a threat

to freedom of speech. Community participation is

very necessary to participate in taking precautions

against the spread of hoax news.

In addition, reinforced research conducted by

Machsun Rifauddin and Arfin Nurma Halida (2018:

98), who said that information is very easily spread

using information technology and the internet today.

However, various problems arise due to the abuse of

these technologies, such as cybercrime and

information dissemination of hoaxes. Control of

information is very important to evaluate the

credibility of the information and its source.

Indeed, cybercrime and the information

dissemination hoax still occur even today. There are

three threats ITE Law in Indonesia that could

potentially overwrite the perpetrators of cybercrime

by making use of social media, namely the threat of

violation of decency article 27 paragraph (1), insult or

defamation of Article 27 paragraph (3), and the

spread of hatred based on ethnicity, religion, race and

intergroup (SARA) of article 28 paragraph (2). More

clearly, the effort to prevent cybercrime from doing

with how to protect computers from viruses,

safeguard privacy, securing e-mail, protect IDs /

Account, make backups of data, and are always up to

date on information. Further, there are several factors

that must be considered in selecting a source of

information on the Internet in order to avoid the

dangers of cybercrime, namely: relevance, accuracy,

authority reputation, objectivity, current, coverage,

strong evidence, as well as the language and style of

writing.

5 CONCLUSION

Hoax is very easily spread using information

technology and the internet through social media

today. This is important for social media users to be

smarter, wiser, and use selective reasoning to verify

all news or information that is increasingly prevalent

in social media lately. That is, by playing an active

role in the understanding and condemnation of media

literacy, information literacy, and technological

literacy, which is basically a source of truth.

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