Deputy Minister of Communication and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria highlighted the dangers of the echo chamber phenomenon and the exposure of false truths on social media platforms.
According to him, social media platforms strive to retain users by presenting content that suits user preferences based on algorithms that record user behavior in interacting with certain content.
As quoted in the ministry's press release in Jakarta on Thursday, he said that this allows social media platform users to only receive information that aligns with their preferences.
"So, each person within a social media algorithm actually lives in their own echo chamber, because they receive information that aligns with and matches what they want," Nezar said.
According to him, such conditions give rise to phenomena called post-truth and hyperreality, where social media users are led to believe information that leads to certain sentiments even though not all of it is in accordance with the facts.
"Because sentiment is more influential than fact, truth becomes irrelevant. Social media shapes perceptions. What's wrong can be right, and what's right can be wrong," he said.
This problem is exacerbated by the rapid development of artificial intelligence ( AI ), which can produce realistic audio-visual content.
To address such issues, the Ministry of Communication and Digital has developed a new digital literacy curriculum to help the public understand how social media works and identify hoax content created using AI.
"The old method is no longer effective, because technology has changed, so a new approach is needed," said Nezar.
The Ministry of Communication and Digital is also collaborating with the Indonesian National Police, the National Cyber and Crypto Agency, and the National Intelligence Agency to address the spread of negative content.
