One Indonesian Organization Is Making Strides Tackling Misinformation and Bolstering Media Literacy
Indonesia is the world’s third-largest democracy, with a population of over 270 million people, and the majority of Indonesians get their news from social media. In 2022, 68 percent of Indonesians said they primarily got their news from social media, but only 39 percent said they trust the news media overall. In the country’s 2019 presidential election, nearly half of the false information shared about candidates originated on Facebook, the BBC found.
Unfortunately, the country also has vague laws on libel and defamation that put both journalists and citizens at risk. For example, last year, the parliament passed legislation that bans “insulting” state institutions, “regulates the criminal act of broadcasting or disseminating false news or notifications,” and “regulates criminal acts against anyone who broadcasts news that is uncertain, exaggerated, or incomplete.” The United Nations has warned that the law could suppress free speech and silence dissent, and Human Rights Watch called it “an unmitigated disaster for human rights in Indonesia.”
To combat the spread of misinformation and elevate media literacy in Indonesia, Mafindo (the Indonesian Anti-Slander Society) was founded in 2016 as a grassroots organization. Mafindo has a core team of nine people, with thousands of volunteers across Indonesia helping conduct training for new journalists, fact-check, and get more members of the public connected with the organization’s work.
Mafindo offers lots of resources beyond video that aim to be “conversational, relatable, and meet people where they are,” according to Harry Sufehmi, the platform’s founder. Its Facebook group has 98,000 members; on TurnBackHoax.id, Mafindo keeps an archive of all of the debunked misinformation from that group. The organization runs training on the real-world dangers of election disinformation and incitement. It’s also created a WhatsApp chatbot to check dubious information and a hoax-busting app. It’s a Facebook third-party fact-checking partner and received Google News Initiative funding to run a media literacy program.
One of the group’s key tenets is that the spread of false information is a societal problem. At a World Health Organization event in 2021, Mafindo board member Santi Indra Astuti outlined the organization’s overarching belief that solutions to misinformation should “avoid government intervention as much as possible.” Aside from partnering with the government to fact-check COVID-19 initiatives, Mafindo has stuck to that promise and doesn’t accept government funding.
Mafindo’s focus is on citizens. The group believes that most “hoax spreaders are not criminals. They are actually victims. Don’t put them in jail, instead rehabilitate them, and make a better effort to educate the public. Target the hoax actors instead, especially their sponsors. Follow the money.”
Sufehmi explained that Mafindo’s entire approach is to stop misinformation at its source. “With debunking, it’s like the house is already on fire and we are doing the firefighting,” Sufehmi said. “But with pre-bunking, we are hoping to be able to actually prevent the fires.”
“We joined forces with [people] to collect donations, food, meals, medicine, and anything that could make them help them and suffer less,” Astuti said of the organization’s operational model. “During these activities, windows of opportunity to talk about misinformation suddenly appeared. It was during a casual conversation in an informal setting, people would listen to us again.” Astuti said, “Without immersing in everyday life, I think we’ll lose opportunities to listen and to feel people’s emotions, perceptions, and why such perceptions did exist.”
Mafindo’s goals are ambitious and its mission and approach are unusual. Worldwide, journalists are observing the project to see if it makes enough of a difference in Indonesia, and can be applied in their own media landscapes.
