Increase Awareness Against Hoaxes from Artificial Intelligence in the 2024 Regional Elections
By: Vina Gunawan*
The spread of hoaxes ahead of the Pilkada is actually increasing. Hoaxes spread in the digital space aim to attack and reduce the credibility of political opponents and damage the course of the democratic party. Various hoaxes spread by certain parties usually consist of fake news about identity politics, SARA issues, or other accusations that manipulate the content of the content. Moreover, currently Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly being used for certain purposes.
The government is considered to have to anticipate the dangers of using AI technology or artificial intelligence in creating and spreading fake news (hoaxes) during the 2024 Regional Head Election (Pilkada). In the future, there will also be many deep fakes that are deliberately created or manipulated as the Pilkada approaches.
Head of Consulting Ensign Infosecurity, Aditya Nugraputra said that there are several things the Government can do to ward off fake news attacks produced by AI technology. First, the Government through the Ministry of Communication and Information (Kemenkominfo) must provide education to the public regarding how to distinguish between hoax information produced by AI technology and hoax information that is not the result of AI.
With maximum education, people will have the awareness to be more careful in choosing information on social media. The public will be able to filter and check the correctness of information before receiving and distributing it in the digital space. This counseling is also considered to be able to reduce people’s emotions when reading hoax information because they have received good digital literacy.
Airlangga University Political Observer, Suko Widodo, said that the political ripples ahead of the Pilkada were already being felt, the public was asked to be careful because of the rapid development of information technology such as AI, hoaxes could be created very easily and the lies were almost undetectable.
Suko Widodo said that currently humans live on two platforms, namely face-to-face and digital. So, according to him, this new behavior could give rise to various new hoaxes that would disturb the public. In its current position, AI is considered a terrible machine because it can divide national unity if it is misused by irresponsible parties.
Meanwhile, Member of the East Java Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), Eka Rahmawati, said that hoaxes in the Pilkada were political instruments aimed at influencing the implementation process and election results. In fact, Eka emphasized that hoaxes are often directed at election organizers such as the KPU and Bawaslu. Hoaxes circulating usually have the aim of discrediting the Government, election organizers, and bringing down political opponents.
Therefore, it is important to maintain a democratic climate, because a healthy democracy will certainly produce leaders who truly serve the nation and state. Community involvement in creating a conducive Pilkada atmosphere will be an illustration of the implementation of mature democracy and lead to the implementation of safe and peaceful Pilkada.
*The writer is a Political Observer Student from the Nusa Bangsa Institute.
