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s the Jakarta gubernatorial election draws near, social media has increasingly turned into a hotspot for smear campaigns with internet users posting a large amount of invalid information, including potentially offensive ethnic and religious sentiments.

Bandung mayor Ridwan Kamil recently complained on his Twitter account after somebody posted a picture of him with a falsely attributed quote that reads, “those who oppose Ahok because he is a [person of] Chinese [descent] are stupid individuals.”

The picture, which carried the logo of Katakita, an account that often tweets information about the Jakarta election, is believed to have used Ridwan’s name and image to support Jakarta Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama, who is often criticized because of his ethnic and religious background.

“I never posted this statement/meme. Whoever makes/distributes it, please stop it. Thank you,” Ridwan said on Twitter. Ridwan has a lot of supporters both in Bandung and in Jakarta, including a number of Islamic groups.

Yenny Wahid, daughter of the late president Abdurrahman “Gus Dur” Wahid, had also fallen victim to a smear campaign. Her picture with a falsely attributed quote went viral recently. The quote read, “Only people with a dirty heart cannot see Ahok’s kindness”.

“Attention: I never said [what was] quoted in the picture,” Yenny clarified on her official account.

Yose Rizal, director of social media pollster Politicawave, said the number of accounts spreading invalid information on social media, including those done by bots, were big. He said, however, it was difficult to estimate the exact number because it is sometimes hard to say whether information is valid until there is official clarification, like in the cases of Ridwan and Yenny.

“They increase every day,” he told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

The Jakarta Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) had drafted a regulation to combat smear campaigns including the use of sectarian issues on social media. But the agency will likely fight a losing battle.

The agency has now required all candidates to register their social media accounts or the ones they will use in the election campaign so it can easily monitor all of the candidates’ activities on social media.

Bawaslu commissioner Muhammad Jufri said the candidates found carrying out a black campaign could face criminal charges in addition to a penalty from Bawaslu, including disqualification from the race.

Law No. 10/2016 on regional elections stipulates that candidates running such a race could indeed be disqualified and face criminal charges from the police.

However, the agency, Jufri said, would not monitor accounts that were not registered with them. It will be the task of the police to follow up on reports about smear campaigns carried out by the unregistered accounts.