Fact checking: Students check their smartphones for the latest news from various social media and news outlets.(JP/Juan Ferdinand)

Indonesia’s rapid uptake of social media in the past 15 years has provided the perfect platform for peddlers of fake news.

An estimated 85 percent of Indonesians own a mobile phone and, at the same time, the active social media community has swollen up to around 106
million users.

A researcher at C2O Library & Collabtive and PERIN+1S, Kathleen Azali, said that the problem of fake news was due to the rapid growth of the internet, specifically social media and smartphones, which have become deeply intertwined in our daily lives.

“More people than ever are intimately exposed and networked to these technologies, without being adequately trained to evaluate and engage productively with them,” Azali said.

Sensationalised headlines, unequal material-technological distribution, social media algorithms, education levels and unemployment amongst younger generations also play a vital role in the overall effectiveness of fake news in Indonesia.

Benedictus Simangunsong, a media and communications lecturer at Pelita Harapan University, said media literacy was needed to help Indonesians deal with the distorted cycle of false information created by social media.

This cycle begins when social media users spread unverified information on a topic that personally aligns with their beliefs or values, ultimately adding to the “filter bubble” effect of social media, according to Benedictus.

“A filter bubble is an algorithm made by social media platforms that isolates people intellectually, meaning that social media only gives information that suits our wants and needs, and the information is usually one-sided,” he said.

While social media giant Facebook has established teams tasked with removing fake news from their site, the question surrounding the impact of their algorithms on the fake news phenomenon remains unanswered.

Eventually, this bubble will create a world made up of familiarity, creating a populist consensus where people will believe their opinion is superior, Benedictus said.

While the filter bubble effect is not directly responsible for fake news, it adds fuel to the fire.

In reality, users are exposed to a greater variety of news sources through various channels, but the way users are consuming their news creates a narrower and more bias view, adding to the filter bubble.

To reduce the impact and spread of fake news, Indonesia needs more media literacy training, especially in digital media and using the internet responsibly, Benedictus and Azali said.

While the number of people accessing the internet in Indonesia has increased, the overall quality of these connections still varies, Azali added.

As an example, Azali explains that past and present media literacy campaigns suggested checking facts with Google. But in most cases, the very act of doing so takes a considerable amount of data, while the majority of Indonesians access this information via a 2G phone and limited prepaid data plan.

In her book, It’s Complicated, Microsoft principal researcher Danah Boyd explains that if the issue is framed as a problem of access and inequality, the emphasis and responsibility is put onto the government and industry to generate initiatives around media literacy training.

If the issue is framed as a skills issue, the responsibility shifts to individuals, families and communities to create initiatives, Azali added.

“While individuals and families have their role and agency, those with the primary power to shape the larger media landscape and digital infrastructure and profit from it should not have their responsibilities obscured,” she said.

“There are various media literacy campaign activities, but they’re mostly dependent upon scattered initiatives driven by disparate departments, private companies, media and various non-governmental organisations.”

Research conducted by the Indonesian Digital Literacy Advocates Network in 2017 confirms that efforts to increase media literacy in Indonesia need to be more synchronised with government and educational institutions to ensure that these types of media literacy activities are sustainable in the long term.

“At the individual level, I encourage people to question their surroundings, their networks, their positions, their ‘filter bubble’ if they think they’re facing opinion homogenisation,” Azali said.
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Amber Sawyers visited Indonesia with support from the Australian government’s new Colombo Plan mobility program.

Samantha Reynolds, Juan Ferdinand and Abdiel Gosal contributed to the story.

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