The Indonesian government is currently working vigorously to\neradicate the disinformation, defamation and hatred caused by the misuse\nof social media and the unethical development of Artificial Intelligence\n(AI). We are facing an AI technology that was born as an extension of\nhuman reason (Good AI), but has quietly transformed into the tidiest\nmachine for multiplying lies ever created (Evil AI).<\/p>\n
It is no longer a question of whether AI is dangerous or beneficial,\nbecause the answer lies bare before our eyes: both are true at once. Our\nshared homework is how to ensure this dual power heals the public sphere\nmore often than it wounds it. In other words, how we can use Good AI to\neradicate Evil AI.<\/p>\n
Consider the data. Between October 2024 and October 2025 alone,\nMafindo recorded 1,593 hoaxes, most of which were born from the womb of\nAI, ranging from deepfakes to personalised scam schemes that appear to\nknow their victims personally. These are no longer crude chain messages\nthat are easily exposed as false. Videos, voices, websites \u2014 all can now\nbe forged with a precision that dulls our eyes and ears, which have long\nbeen our mainstay for telling the real from the fake.<\/p>\n
And those figures pale in comparison with recent developments. Deputy\nMinister of Communications and Digital Affairs Nezar Patria, in\nSeptember 2025, cited Sensity AI data: deepfake content has surged 550\npercent over the past five years, and nine out of ten instances are used\nfor harmful purposes. Early 2026 looks even more alarming. A\ncybersecurity workshop in Yogyakarta presented data showing a 1,400\npercent spike in deepfake attacks within a year, accompanied by success\nrates of 54 to 60 percent for AI-based phishing attacks. Septiaji Eko\nNugroho, Chair of the Mafindo Presidium, put it this way: deepfakes in\nIndonesia are now most commonly used to defraud people, whilst\nsimultaneously steering public opinion on the political stage.<\/p>\n
When Algorithms Stoke Hatred<\/p>\n
The problem does not stop at emptied wallets. The Chairman of\nBawaslu, Rahmat Bagja, ahead of preparations for the 2029 General\nElection, warned that AI enables anyone to produce content that is\nnearly impossible to distinguish from reality, worsened by bots,\ncoordinated account networks and micro-targeting that hunts specific\nvoter groups like guided missiles. More heartbreaking still, the same\ndata shows that at least 11 percent of young women aged 15 to 29 have\nexperienced online gender-based violence since their teens, mostly\nthrough deepfakes and visual manipulation.<\/p>\n
This is no longer abstract discourse on the ethics of technology; it\nis a real wound borne by real people. Herein lies the true danger, and\nperhaps here the proverb \u2018still waters run deep\u2019 fits best.\nSensationalist hoax content more easily provokes emotion, and\ntechnically neutral social media algorithms prioritise it precisely\nbecause it is considered \u2018engaging\u2019 by many. Echo chambers form, locking\nnetizens inside bubbles that align with their own beliefs. Defamation\nand hate speech flourish, not only from easily flagged anonymous\naccounts, but also by sneaking quietly into information that looks\nconvincing, yet is murky at its core.<\/p>\n
The Counter-Weapon: AI as Detector<\/p>\n
But this story must not end as mere complaint. The same knife can\nslice bread or cut a hand \u2014 it depends on who wields it. Mafindo\u2019s 2025\nstudy shows that transformer-based language models are capable of\nclassifying hoax news in Indonesian with accuracy above 90 percent.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, research published in the June 2026 edition of the\nKhatulistiwa Informatika journal has gone a step further, developing an\nautonomous AI-based hoax detection system with 89.3 percent accuracy\nthat can even present the evidence behind its decisions, rather than\nsimply declaring \u2018this is a hoax\u2019 without justification.<\/p>\n
Civil society is not standing idle on the sidelines either. Mafindo\nruns TurnBackHoax.id as a fact-checking data repository, and has\npartnered with independent developers to launch Ceksumber, an AI-based\nhoax-checking tool accessible through WhatsApp messages, as easy as\ngreeting an old friend. This collaboration has also extended to Google\nthrough Cekfakta.com, uniting Mafindo, the Alliance of Independent\nJournalists and the Indonesian Cyber Media Association in a single\nverification front.<\/p>\n
All of this affirms what has perhaps become an open secret: AI is a\ndouble-edged knife, and the direction of its sharpness depends on who\ngrips the handle. The very same artificial intelligence used by xAI to\ntrain Grok in real time from the X timeline \u2014 so much so that it was\ntemporarily blocked by the Ministry of Communications and Digital\nAffairs earlier this year \u2014 could in fact be engineered to safeguard\nhuman dignity, provided it is designed from the outset with ethical\nalignment that is not half-hearted.<\/p>\n
An Idea: A Digital Authenticity Chain and an Automated Risk Score<\/p>\n
There is one layer of defence that is rarely noticed: blockchain as\nthe guardian of the provenance of information. If generative AI is a\nmachine that manufactures doubt, distributed ledger technology works on\nthe reverse logic: permanently recording the origin and modification\nhistory of data, immune to unilateral tampering by anyone.<\/p>\n
From our experience designing blockchain systems for resolving\nelectronic information disputes for the Central Information Commission,\nplus blockchain-based traceability in the global halal supply chain with\nthe Halal Product Assurance Organising Agency, we believe there is one\nstep that has never been proposed in full in this country: uniting the\nrecording of content provenance, AI-based risk assessment, and the legal\ndispute mechanism within a single interlocking architecture.<\/p>\n
The concept is not actually complicated; it simply has never been\nexecuted at national scale. Imagine this: every piece of generative AI\ncontent must be stamped with a cryptographic signature and time-stamped\non a national distributed ledger before it may circulate on digital\nplatforms operating in Indonesia. Not merely a water-mark sticker that\ncan be removed with a single click, but a trace embedded at the protocol\nlevel, impossible to forge undetected.<\/p>\n
As soon as content is reported by netizens, an independent AI\nassessment model immediately calculates its risk score, measuring the\npotential for defamation or hate speech it contains, then forwards\nhigh-scoring cases to the information dispute resolution channel that we\nare currently building for the Central Information Commission. In this\nway, provenance verification, danger detection and law enforcement no\nlonger run separately like three arrows flying off course in different\ndirections, but as one chain of trust moving in unison. This is the\nbridge connecting intelligent computing with dispute resolution science\n\u2014 two fields that have long run as parallel roads, rarely intersecting\nin Indonesia\u2019s digital policy.<\/p>\n
Regulation Is Not Mere Formality<\/p>\n
Technical strength alone will not suffice without a firm legal\numbrella. the Electronic Information and Transactions Law and the\nPersonal Data Protection Law serve as the foundation for demanding\naccountability from Electronic System Operators, including global\nplatforms reaping huge profits in Indonesia. The government has gone\nfurther with Government Regulation Number 17 of 2025 on the Governance\nof Electronic System Operation for Child Protection, better known as PP\nTUNAS, born directly from concern over the impact of deepfakes on\nvulnerable groups. Demanding compliance from global platforms does not\nmean being anti-innovation. This is about safeguarding the nation\u2019s\ninformation sovereignty so it does not become a sacrifice for the\neconomic interests of foreign technology players who sometimes act as if\nthey stand above the law of any country.<\/p>\n
Literacy and Conscience as the Last Firewall<\/p>\n
However, regulation and detection algorithms are only half the\njourney, not the finishing line. Research by Alamsyah and Lestari of\nUniversitas Swadaya Gunung Jati, published in the Sibatik journal in\n2026, found something rather piercing: many social media users fail to\nevaluate visual information critically, not out of malice, but simply\nbecause they were never equipped with that ability from the start. The\nburden of verification must therefore not be laid entirely on\nindividuals. Hate speech and defamation do not always arrive wrapped in\neasily recognisable hoaxes; sometimes they sneak inside information\nwhose facts are true, but wrapped in rotten intent.<\/p>\n
This is where the importance of a collaborative verification\necosystem lies \u2014 one built through gotong royong between government,\nplatforms, academics, media and volunteer communities like Mafindo,\nwhich now reaches 44 regions across Indonesia. However sophisticated the\ndetection technology, it is all in vain if society remains easily\nprovoked by sensational headlines and too lazy to check the truth before\ntheir fingers hit the share button.<\/p>\n
Towards a Digital Sovereignty with Conscience<\/p>\n
We are not talking about stemming the tide of innovation, for that is\nclearly impossible \u2014 and truthfully, there is no need. What is needed is\nthe courage to navigate its risks with a compass of humanity that must\nnot deviate in the slightest, like a ship\u2019s captain remaining calm amid\ngreat waves. Indonesia already has the capital for this, from\nhoax-detection initiatives developed by domestic researchers to\ncross-sector collaborations such as Cekfakta.com.<\/p>\n
By way of illustration, BRAIN IPB University itself has pioneered the\napplication of artificial intelligence to a public information dispute\nresolution system, cybersecurity resilience testing for the national\nhealth service in partnership with BPJS Kesehatan, and a\nblockchain-based traceability model for safeguarding food data\nintegrity. This is concrete proof that digital sovereignty can be\nknitted from domestic laboratories and campuses, not merely a slogan on\nthe seminar stage.<\/p>\n
The task ahead is to ensure that Indonesia\u2019s young generation stops\nbeing spectators on the side-lines whilst foreign algorithms fight in\nthe centre of the field. They must dare to step forward as designers of\nverification systems and architects of the nation\u2019s own digital ethics.\nFor in the end, the battle against disinformation, defamation and hatred\nis not about who owns the most sophisticated machine, but about who\nsucceeds in entrusting the spirit of humanity into every line of their\ncode, however small that line may appear on screen.<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/ai-against-disinformation-defamation-and-hatred-1788792759", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }