Hoax

Hoax is a well known word around the world. It has great influence in people’s life and community. It had misled people, caused unrests, and even death. There are many different types of hoax. Some hoaxes are about politics or a certain tribe/religion/race/etc. Others about safety, health, food, and education. To avoid disruption in our lives and societies, we social media users must be active in preventing hoaxes.

False health information may also lead people to spend up to hundreds of dollars to buy something utterly useless for their health. People may not trust their doctors anymore and continue to be guided by the internet. This can be dangerous, as they may never know who is really behind the news.

Hoaxes may also be used to put down competitors, such as another company or political candidates. Misleading news about other candidates may lead us to pick someone who doesn’t benefit our city/state/country. This is such a waste, as we could’ve made plenty of improvements during that leader’s era. Different supporters may also end up having a war with the other about their leader of choice, and this would lead to the spread of unnecessary hatred.

In October 2018, an image of a woman’s bruised and abused face sparked a lot commotion among Indonesian netizens. It was said to be the face of Ratna Sarumpaet. The post said that she was beaten by some people. Ratna Sarumpaet is in the winning team of a presidential candidate, and the people from that presidential candidate’s political party confirmed it. Even the presidential candidate himself confirmed it. As it’s nearing the president election, people could easily assume that the attack was made by the other presidential candidate’s political party. After some investigations made by the police, it was revealed that Ratna Sarumpaet actually just had some plastic surgery.

Whenever we receive information through social media, the first thing most of us do is: forward and share! This habit must be avoided! That’s actually the last thing we should do. The foremost action we should take is cross-checking & researching. We could cross-check by googling some keywords from the article/information and see whether similar news/information show up at other reliable sites such as CNN.com, Kompas.com, etc. Additionally, nowadays, there are many websites dedicated to battling hoax such as Snopes or Detik.com’s hoax or no hoax site.

If we find out that the information we receive is a hoax, we should attempt to stop it by informing the sender that the message they sent was a hoax. To avoid misconceptions, we could remind them to inform others too. We could also report the fake news to the administrator of the social media. Most social media platforms have functions to allow users to report fake news easily.

Hoax could be dangerous and fatal once it spreads everywhere, especially with almost everyone having access to social media. Both young and old might just believe in anything from social media and take immediate actions without checking the facts. So watch out for any fake news and do your roles in getting rid of hoax!