Authorities Should Act Against Hate Speech on Social Media: Pundit
Jakarta. Concerns viral hoaxes and hate speech will influence the four month 2017 regional election campaign period must be addressed by the government, a political commentator has said.
“I agree that the accounts that spread hate should be sanctioned. These not only on the religious, racial and group issues, but also those related to moral and ethics,” Emrus Sihombing, a political communication observer from Pelita Harapan University, said on Sunday (30/10).
He urged the police not to wait for public complaints before taking any actions.
"It should be a general cause, not based on complaints. Meaning, the police will be able to act without any complaints, where the cyber crime patrol may arrest the account owners,” Emrus said.
“It may lead to horizontal conflict or civil war in Indonesia."
Emrus suggested requiring social media users to register their ID card numbers when signing up, although how the government would coerce privately run social media companies into doing so is unknown.
“They can have one or 1,000 accounts, but all of them start with the ID card number, to grow responsibility,” he said. “With these ID card numbers, the police will be able to track them down. We do not ban freedom of speech, but the freedom also has rules and they should take responsibility.”
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