- 14/12/2017
- Category: Commentaries
Digital literacy is an essential competency for people to have in this era. With the variations and abundance of content that the Internet could create, it is important to be digitally literate so we can be critical about the information on the Internet and distinguish valid information from the fake ones. Sadly, the levels of digital literacy in our society varies, and this results in a portion of our society believing everything they see on the Internet and not evaluating it firsthand.[1] To make things worse, an online syndicate group in Indonesia, named Saracen, has been exploiting the digitally illiterate people by secretly spreading hoaxes and hatred to the public through online news portals and social media platforms.[2] This is a worrying phenomenon and an example of an improper use of digital resources.
In August, Reuters reported that Indonesia’s police cybercrime unit sued dozens of social media accounts for spreading negative content such as hoax and hate speech through around 800,000 social media accounts.[3] The police spokesman, Setiyono, said investigators had uncovered that a particular group, later discovered to be Saracen, received money of up to US$ 5,000 from individuals and organizations for its services. In this case, multiple laws have been violated and huge amounts of money were involved. However, what is more concerning is that the Saracen group have used their digital resources improperly, by spreading negativity to the public and exploiting those with low digital literacy on the Internet.
We know that digital resources–from social media to productivity apps—all have the potential to make people’s lives better with their efficiency and effectiveness strongpoints. However, despite the good computer literacy and digital skills that the members of Saracen have, they ‘proved’ that digital resources can also be utilized negatively. It allows them to spread fake news, hate speech, and threats towards many individuals by taking advantage of the digitally illiterate, because people with low digital literacy can easily be misled to believing false information and change the political landscape. Through the utilization of information technologies and the Internet, the negative and controversial contents they created have been so widespread that it has caused political and social instability in Indonesia to some extent.
To sum up, the Saracen syndicate has proved that digital resources can be utilized to exploit the digitally illiterate and organize crime with the goal of gaining profit. In this case, it was for creating and spreading negative and controversial content, which are against the idea of building a peaceful and serene society. Bearing in mind that the digital world is high in complexity and that overall our society has not developed adequate digital literacy, the emergence of Saracen and the widespread of hoax and hate speech may not be the last of its kind.
Picture : Pexels.com
References :
[1] Kurnia, N. (2017). Researchers find Indonesia needs more digital literacy education. [online] The Conversation. Available at: http://theconversation.com/researchers-find-indonesia-needs-more-digital-literacy-education-84570 [Accessed 30 Aug. 2017]
[2] The Jakarta Post. (2017). Police probing 100GB data in Saracen investigation. [online] Available at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2017/08/26/police-probing-100gb-data-in-saracen-investigation.html [Accessed 27 Aug. 2017].
[3] Kapoor, K. (2017). Indonesians uncover syndicate spreading hate speech online: police. [online] Reuters. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-indonesia-cyber/indonesians-uncover-syndicate-spreading-hate-speech-online-police-idUSKCN1B419W [Accessed 30 Aug. 2017].
