Use Chatbox on Whatsapp to Check Hoax Information – In the digital era, the spread of hoaxes has become very massive. Hoaxes are usually spread by taking advantage of the momentum and even disasters such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hoaxes related to Covid-19 do not only occur in Indonesia, but also globally and spread to other countries. For example, developed countries such as England, there were dozens of 5G towers that were burned because they were believed to be the ones that spread the corona virus.
Unfortunately, the Chairman of the Mafindo Presidium, Septiaji Eko Nugroho, said that Indonesia was a fairly massive country regarding the spread of Covid-19 hoaxes. “From research taken from various countries from February to April 2022, we are ranked 5th in the world of spreading hoaxes, stigma, and conspiracy theories,” said the man who is usually called Zack, during a virtual press conference, Tuesday (26/1/2022). ).
“We recorded that there were 83 hoaxes related to vaccines. The virality is quite high, because 40% of them are related to safety and efficacy issues,” he added.
Zack explained, if an information has an element of fear, it is usually easy to make people want to know and spread it. According to him, this kind of thing can be found in people who do not think critically.
He gave an example, there was an issue that a doctor in Sumatra died after being vaccinated. Then the Sleman Regent after being vaccinated even tested positive for Corona. A lot of this kind of information is incomplete but easy to spread on social media in the country.
“The intention may be good to share knowledge and vigilance, but if it is not investigated first, it can be misleading and dangerous,” he said. To find out a hoax, Zack advised the public to look critically at any information that appears on social media and not from sites that have credibility. Currently, there have also been various efforts from fact-checking channels. The government has a fact-finding website through the Ministry of Communication and Information. “We from Mafindo also manage turnbackhoaks.id and Cekfact.com sites, which work with 24 online media,” said Zack.
WhatsApp Chatbots
In addition to the methods above, previously Mafindo has also launched a chatbot on WhatsApp to verify the veracity of information. This chatbot is embedded with many features to make it easier to use. “There are more than 6,000 databases stored in the chatbot. The contents are related to political, social, disaster, health, and many more issues,” said Zack, at the launch of the chatbot, November last year. How to use it is very easy. Users simply save the number 0859-2160-500. Then open the WhatsApp application, and send a message to the number with the desired keywords.
It didn’t take long, the chatbot account immediately responded with five choices. 1. Check Hoaxes, 2. Check Latest Facts, 3. Tips & tricks to fight hoaxes, 4. About us, 5. Privacy.
After that, the user only needs to select one of the menus by typing only the numbers, then press the send button. Apart from typing in keywords, users can also forward messages they want to check.
“We will display 5 findings with the highest accuracy from our hoax database,” wrote the chatbot account.
Source: innews.id
