US-based social media company Facebook has established a special team tasked with tackling the spread of hoaxes in Indonesia ahead of the 2019 presidential election, the Communications and Information Ministry said. It is predicted the spread of hoaxes on social media platforms will double both ahead and during the election, the ministry added. It was during the meeting that Facebook officials confirmed it had formed a special team assigned to Indonesia to monitor the spread of hoaxes and block accounts suspected of spreading fake news via Facebook. “There should be collaboration between the government and Facebook to tackle hoaxes,” the ministry's informatics application director general Samuel Abrijani Pangarapan said. The team will block “negative content” such as pornography and hoaxes based on reports from Facebook users.

Source: The Nation Bangkok August 03, 2017 03:22 UTC