Religious and racial intolerance is old news in Indonesia. Its inevitable for a country that was build of diversity.
But intolerance in Indonesia has reached a whole different level recently.
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Hatred and fake news fueled by intolerance are everywhere on social media. Religious sentiments are used to politicized social issues, like what happened in Kendeng, where local famers are fighting a development of cement industry. Mosques were said to be burnt when in fact there has been none. Nevertheless, the anger spread like wildfire.
Fake news with religious and racial sentiments like this is threatening our country. Promoting prejudice has never been this easy. Spreading hatred has never been this effortless.
I think the problem lies in Indonesias low media literacy.
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Indonesias reading interest rate is the second lowest among 61 countries, according to a study by Central Connecticut State University. Moreover, the research also revealed that Indonesians are the most active and loudest social media users in the world, making us an easy target for provocative information, slander and fake news.
Blocking websites and accounts that spread lies is not enough. It is easy to build another website or set up another social media accounts. The government should take action to increase peoples media literacy from getting people to read more to educating people about how important double checking information is.
They (and us) need to fight fake news from the producers and readers side. Only then, we can live in a more peaceful world of internet.