Trenggalek, East Java (ANTARA) – The Trenggalek Regency Government has formed a Digital Communications Committee to monitor the movement of information through cyberspace, particularly anticipating the emergence and development of issues containing elements of hoax in the community.

The members of the Digital Communications Committee are made up of representatives from the government, TNI, Polri, a media team and academics.

“With the creation of the digital communication committee, it is hoped that it can be a covering and a filter for all the information that develops in the community,” said Trenggalek Regent Mochamad Nur Arifin after inaugurating the committee team of digital communication at Regency Hall, Wednesday. .

According to him, the current era of information disclosure is an unavoidable necessity. The government, from the central level to the regional level, must accelerate the monitoring of the development of information technologies and its negative impacts or abuses, in particular on social networks.

Especially in the situation leading to political protest, both positive and negative narratives will continue to emerge.

With the number of Internet users in Indonesia reaching 204.7 million people and of which 191 million are active social media users (data “We are Social Hootsuite, Canada as of February 2022), the scattered information on the timeline is very dynamic.

This reality, he says, is felt at the regional level. The high level of community digital access does not match the level of digital literacy. This is why there are still so many negative stories that fake news easily reaches the people of Indonesia.

“It all starts with a story, especially now that so many stories are popping up on social media. We hope that with the existence of this digital communications committee, we can be a layer and a filter for that information,” he said. -he declares.

Arifin pointed out that the existence of the digital communication committee is more geared towards a balance of information if the news / news is not true on social media.

“Not then filter the news to fit the interests, not like that, but filter the ‘black-black’, which is just a hoax, so if there is a negative campaign, the information does not is not true, it leaves room for clarification,” he explained.

The role of the digital communications committee is not supposed to cover the space and then provide counter-opinions on social media, but rather to educate the public to get the right information.

“That is why a healthy communication climate in the digital age must be built,” he said.

He admits that it is not easy to go around the digital education of the public because the number of committees with the number of Internet users (citizens) must be more Internet users, so controlling everything is certainly not easy.

“Instead, we control and regulate them. It’s better if we mingle with them so that if we become part of the online community, then we can provide a balance of opinion to the community,” said he declared.