In the present-day times of the fast-paced information era, the issue of peacekeeping has become a very vital issue which the society of Indonesia should continue to uphold with utmost care. Any news on any issue is shared immediately over the social media such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Tik Tok, and Instagram, and it tends to go faster than any fact checking. This fast spread within our archipelago is undermining the bonds within the communities, creating divisions among ethnic groups, religions, and regions, and destroying collective realities in a country of 17,000 islands and more than 700 ethnicities. The harmful consequences of fake news or hoaxes are vast, tore families, communities, and provinces apart, fueling the already existing tensions into a full-blown conflict, whether it is urban riots or country panics.
As such, strict filtering of information prior to dissemination comes out as a mandatory practice, one that will enable us to foster peaceful co-existence based on mutual respect, tolerance, empathy, and critical thinking. Being digital natives in Indonesia, our vigilance is the line of defense against anarchy in this hyper-connected environment.Peace is simply a state of being in the world without conflict, violence or fear. Traditionally, in the contemporary Indonesia, the concept has been changing to refer to more than the traditional state to state relations or even villages level relations to responsible information sharing in the face of the explosive digital growth.
Indonesians can study, work, socialize and connect with each other without any problems, whether in the busy streets of Semarang, Jawa Tengah or in isolated villages of Papua or Sulawesi. A farmer in Lombok can now become a WhatsApp group member to get crop advice and students in Jakarta take online classes through Zoom. But this convenience develops one of the main dangers, false information, the deliberate or accidental transfer of false or misleading information. The aftermaths are extremely unwell and breed poor myths, societal disputes and heightened tensions that disrupt communities. As an example, health panics in floods or elections fuelled by hoaxes have on several occasions triggered panic buying or riots in the streets, and this clearly shows that uncontrolled information flows cause a Bhinneka Tunggal Ika to be divided.
The Deep Impact of Information in the Indonesian SocietyInformation has significant effects on the way the Indonesians think, behave, and associate with each other in the varying cultural lenses. Verified and true information leads to formation of knowledge, trust and collaboration which spread to communal cohesion. Through the COVID-19 pandemic, WhatsApp groups and Tik Tok videos shared health guidelines approved by the Kominfo about mask-wearing, handwashing, and vaccinations, encouraging millions in such cities as Jakarta, Surabaya, and Semarang to adhere to them, which saved the lives of millions and did not allow the breakdown of social order during lockdowns and the impact of the economy. These movements were illustrations of how trustworthy information can unify our groups of diverse people on the archipelago, through high-rises and kampung, and strengthens connections stretched by space and accent, making the results be even more violent when aided with algorithms that emphasize sensationalism over factual information.
The 2019 riots in Jakarta can be called a dark event: unreliable Twitter claims of presidential election fraud went viral, fueling confrontations that cost hundreds of people their lives, hundreds of vehicles were burned, and the election undermined democracy in Indonesia on a national scale. In Lombok, fake tsunami alarms through chain WhatsApp messages spread panic among the survivors, redirecting aid and further traumatizing the communities that were already devastated by the earthquake, which occurred after 2018. These Indonesian instances demonstrate a bitter truth of what we listen to and spread into the world is going to be the determining element of peace in our age of information saturation. In the absence of filters local agonies swell to national catastrophes, challenging as they do the multicultural fabric, but the cost to society is always extremely high. Imagine the viral Facebook post about one ethnicity hoarding rice in a Java flood crisis, which goes viral on Tik Tok reels before fact-checkers can work on the post, dividing the neighbors.
Between 2018 and 2023, Kominfo registered more than 12,000 hoaxes, with health myths first in the list (e.g. garlic cures COVID), then government scams and political rumors, exploiting the fears of the populace. There are also job scams: in 2023, desperate applicants fell into fake Bulog recruitment calls in Jawa Tengah, and forged Pertamina interview invitations were circulated on Facebook, taking money out of applicants in Sumatra and Kalimantan. In 2018, the notorious panic of telur plastik (plastic eggs) devastated Javanese poultry farmers by spreading false videos that Chinese imports flooded the markets- just a fiction that wiped out domestic sales and lives. In Papua, 2023 rumors about separatist attacks were spread through anonymous Telegram channels, and it caused more fear and disrupted everyday life. These hoaxes are local and show that one of the digital bazaars Indonesian platforms is faster than truth. The countermeasures such as checking entries by stopping to check with TurnBackHoax or Mafindo are essential as the initial steps of any netizen.
How Local Hoaxes contribute to Social InjusticeBesides causing mayhem in the short run, misinformation instills social injustice by victimizing innocent populations with fake stories, fostering discrimination and marginalization. During the COVID peak in 2020 in Semarang, Chinese-Indonesians were falsely accused of bringing the virus and boycotted their stores because of hoaxes that revived ancient ethnic animosity in the diverse markets of Jawa Tengah. In 2017-2018, an outbreak of fear about COVID led to multiple child kidnapping scares that shook Facebook in Aceh up to Bali, causing mobs of vigilantes to attack innocent tourists and injuring and wrongly arresting them.A COVID hoax post by a civil servant in 2019 increased panic in the region in Sumatera Selatan, undermining trust in local officials. In 2022, Ramadan in Bandung, counterfeit purported halal-certified pork at school canteens sparked religious outrage which resulted in protests and parental fury. Such events pervert the thinking, destroy a sense of empathy, and develop unhealthy us vs. them mindsets, undermining the pluralistic peace of Indonesia.
Education: Building a Digital NationwideDigital resilience isn’t built by individual actions, and it isn’t created on an individual level, but through education Indonesians learn how to critically analyze the information, compare facts with fiction, cross-reference information, and think before posting; all of which is crucial in preventing the growth of fake news in Indonesia. Learned since primary school these tools create responsible digital citizens who avoid being sensationalists instead of seekers of truth. The Gerakan Literasi Digital Nasional led by the Ministry of Communication has trained millions of people through CekFakta portal and community workshops, and by 2025, 65 per cent of Indonesians have claimed to now habitually verify the news, compared to 40 per cent before 2020, which has led to a reduction in the number of hoax-related conflicts during election periods and disasters.
A post-pandemic shift is clear: a 2025 Katadata survey found that now, 65 per cent of Indonesians say they are Diversifying curricula by deepfakes created by AI, which in Jakarta schools was tested with promising results, would guarantee even greater security of peace in the long term, though on knowledgeable generations. On the positive side, it helps to overcome barriers: Tik Tok video clips have reinvigorated the 2022 Tongkonan Festival in Sulawesi to reveal Toraja culture to the national audience and foster cultural tolerance. However, it hypercharges hoaxes, such as the 2023 Papua separatist whispers on Twitter that led to localized conflicts. Ethical use requires the acquisition of the primaries (e.g., official Kominfo sources), disclosing fakes, and avoiding echo-chambers.
Governments, Community, and Policy SynergiesGovernments play the most key role: the amended UU ITE in Indonesia provides fines or imprisonment on spreaders of hoaxes but strikes a balance between the freedom of speech. Pemprov Kominfo in Jawa Tengah rapidly disproved 2024 DJP email scams and Bulog frauds. Independent organizations such as the Mafindi hold seminars; open-corporate relationships such as Meta increase coverage. These initiatives reflect the Singaporean approach but adjusted to our conditions, reducing online hate through active screening is a responsible responsibility of people in our ethnic kaleidoscope.
Personal Vows, Empathy, and ToleranceMaking a commitment to be careful and have various sources available before posting is an attentive task of people in our ethnic mosaic. This is magnified by empathy: reverence to various prisms like in confirmed 2024 Central Java interfaith iftar narratives that repaired communal divisions. The narrative understanding advocated by philosopher Hannah Arendt serves as a defense against the banality of evil in misinformation, but it will be a difficult undertaking to pursue peace on the internet, but it can be done by individual action and good policies. With our archipelago united or dissolved with information, in Indonesia, critical thinking, empathy, and tolerance are our protection. Being digital natives, the art of discernment of information builds a righteous, safe, fortunate tanah air. Intelligent speech, not panic–bringing, not separating, our full-blooded nation.
By: Chalis Bella Marhaena
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