It is predicted the spread of hoaxes on social media platforms will double both ahead and during the election, the ministry added.

To get Facebook’s participation in the government's efforts to combat fake news, Communications and Information Ministry officials held a meeting with representatives of the social media company on Wednesday.

It was during the meeting that Facebook officials confirmed it had formed a special team assigned to Indonesia to monitor the spread of hoaxes and block accounts suspected of spreading fake news via Facebook.

“There should be collaboration between the government and Facebook to tackle hoaxes,” the ministry's informatics application director general Samuel Abrijani Pangarapan said.

The team will block “negative content” such as pornography and hoaxes based on reports from Facebook users.

Samuel said Facebook had also developed a special algorithm that would automatically block negative content and hoaxes. It has yet to make clear how the system would work.

The ministry is pushing social media companies, including Facebook, to take down hoaxes on their platforms following the rampant spread of fake news during the recent Jakarta gubernatorial election that caused polarization in society.

Samuel said the ministry would meet Twitter officials on Thursday and Google representatives on Friday to invite them to join in the government's efforts to fight against hoaxes. (ebf)