National

Gus Sholah warns of hoaxes ahead of presidential election

Jumat, 22 Februari 2019 | 06:09 WIB

Surabaya, NU Online
KH Salahuddin Wahid, popularly known as Gus Solah said that hoaxes and fake news were not only targeting the lower classes or grassroots but also intellectuals.

"It turns out that citizens with high degrees and even professors are not necessarily not consumed by hoaxes," he said at a meeting in Surabaya on Thursday (21/2).

According to Gus Sholah, all this is inseparable from their inattention in differentiating between those that are considered hoaxes and those that are based on reliable facts dan data, especially ahead of the 2019 presidential elections.

Gus Sholah appealed to the Indonesian people not to be easy to believe in hoaxes and spread them out.

"On social media, people easily receive messages, then the messages are sent to others, or they get emotionally burned and then respond," he said.

Fierce rivalry in the concurrent legislative and presidential elections next year is expected to result in a flood of hoaxes and fake news as candidates and their supporters will use social media as a platform to win over voters.

 there were laws that could be used to deal with the creators and distributors of fake information, namely the Criminal Code, the Electronic Information and Transactions (ITE) Law and the General Elections Law. (Syarif Abdurrahman/Masdar)