Septiaji Nugroho

Indonesia ranks the fourth highest in terms of internet users globally, yet with hoaxes increasingly spread through digital platforms, there are still no comprehensive measures addressing this pervasive problem. In response, Septiaji Nugroho is building a civic resiliency movement open to everyone to engage against untruthful data, strengthen digital literacy, and renew trust between citizens and their government.

Septiaji is building a civic resilience movement against hoaxes and misinformation that changes the behavior of police, media, government, and citizens. Unlike other civil society organizations that work in silos, Septiaji founded the Indonesian Anti-Slander Society (MAFINDO) as the vehicle for a movement. It enables anyone to participate and contribute to fact-checking, improving digital literacy, and building trust in the government and the media.

To combat hoaxes, Septiaji’s movement engages 26 reputed online media organizations to work collaboratively under cekfakta.com (meaning ‘check facts’ in Bahasa) – a web-based application for fact-checking where journalists supply data, and people can check and validate for fake news. The police also use the compiled data from the web to track the spreading of misinformation. MAFINDO successfully mobilized 90,000 online members to contribute to fact-checking. In addition, MAFINDO now has more than 500 volunteers in 39 cities across Indonesia that help spread awareness about hoaxes, strengthen digital literacy and engage young people to be part of the movement.

Septiaji realizes that many citizens contributed to the spread of hoaxes and misinformation because lack of digital literacy, which the government did not provide equally in Indonesia. Hence, Septiaji developed a digital literacy education curriculum called Tular Nalar (spread critical thinking) as a crucial learning toolkit for Indonesian citizens. MAFINDO partners with the Islamic Organization of Muhammadiyah and have engaged 1,400 lecturers, 6,000 teachers, and more than 20,000 students in 25 cities in Indonesia. Septiaji has also engaged the Ministry of Religious Affairs for further outreach to religious-based schools and universities. Tular Nalar has successfully incorporated the curriculum into the Indonesia Online Learning System (SPADA Indonesia) of the Ministry of Education and Culture and thus reached out to many more students who accessed the course.

Moreover, Septiaji also partners with the Indonesian Police Force to ensure the application of a clear distinction between freedom of expression, hoaxes, and criminal offense. As a result of the partnership, the National Police Force issued Circulation Letter No. 2 of 2021 on addressing digital cases through a restorative justice approach, prioritizing preventive and educational actions, and encouraging mediation. The partnership with the police is a huge deal not only for collaborative work to prevent and combat hoaxes but also to protect citizens contributing to fact-checking.

Septiaji’s work has been adopted by the Ministry of Information and Communication Indonesia and integrated into the National Digital Literacy Movement which Septiaji was assigned as an advisor. And MAFINDO’s model has also been adopted by many anti-hoax programs from different organizations and government institutions in Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, and the Philippines.

The number of Indonesian internet users is increasing yearly, reaching 200 million people at the end of 2021. Hoaxes, which fall into the fake news category, are a series of non-verifiable information through sources, facts, or quotes, often intentionally misled for a specific purpose but disseminated or informed as truth. The number of hoaxes and disinformation campaigns in Indonesia has increased yearly. MAFINDO tracked roughly 10 incidents of hoaxes or disinformation campaigns per month in 2015; by 2021, incidents rose to 3,000. Hoax news is widely spread through social media, and the lack of digital literacy and critical thinking skills among Indonesians has enabled hoaxes and misinformation to spread more rapidly. “Digital literacy” is associated with better identifying true versus false information. Unfortunately, Indonesia ranks second to last out of 61 countries in a world survey on digital literacy conducted by Central Connecticut State University.

Hoaxes and misinformation have real-world consequences that threaten Indonesia’s stability. Regarding politics, during the 2014 Indonesia general election, for example, hate speech and hoaxes led to increased clashes within the society. Thousands of people clashed with the police because they believed the result of the election has been rigged from the misinformation they received continuously through social media and WhatsApp groups. In the following Jakarta Governor election in 2016, incited by online hoaxes, violent conflicts ensued, with hundreds of people injured. The General Election Commission (KPU) and the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) seemed paralyzed and have not responded to prevent future violence. In terms of health management/issues, misinformation has also exacerbated the pandemic in Indonesia. During the wave of cases due to the Delta variant, misinformation kept individuals from following public health protocols, going to the hospital to seek treatment, or receiving COVID-19 vaccines, leading to thousands of people dying during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Misinformation feeds a lack of trust in the government and the media. Roughly 50% of misinformation in Indonesia is about government regulations and information, such as the government welcoming a hundred thousand employees from China working in many cities in Indonesia or information about the Indonesian government selling its natural resources to foreign countries. This misinformation creates fear in society and decreases their trust in the government. Not to mention, hoax cases are also around food and drugs – an important and crucial aspect of public health and national security – as well as racial and religious identity, which create tension within society. On the other hand, online media have not responded to this issue either. They either don’t know how to validate the news or because of the shift to online publications, are incentivized to target the highest number of readers and often publish unverified or incomplete news (clickbait news) to gain the attention of people to read the news. The issue of combating hoaxes and misinformation needs systemic change that involve everyone, which is what MAFINDO is aiming for.

Seventy-three percent of Indonesian citizen use online media to get information in daily life. Online media has played a significant role in distributing information to people, yet is also being used by hoax producers to spread misinformation. Septiaji understands the battlefield for this issue, and the first thing he does is bring together key media players to work under cekfakta.com. Using the Application Programming Interface (API) technology built by MAFINDO, this web-based application serves as a fact-checking tool allowing two or more applications to connect to each other. A total of 26 online media are part of cekfakta.com, and people have used it to validate the information. Septiaji also trained journalists to ensure that the news complied with journalistic principles, thus preventing misinformation. With technology, MAFINDO has spearheaded many anti-hoax initiatives, such as crowdsourced hoax busting, TURNBACKHOAX.id, and many online and offline campaigns. By 2021, Septiaji had managed to engage 90,000 online members and more than 500 volunteers across 39 cities in Indonesia. One of the key successes is that MAFINDO inspired online media to work together to create a specific session to debunk spreading hoaxes in society. Now, online media have at least one session to tell people what hoax or misinformation they find daily and debunk it to minimize the negative impact on people.

However, Septiaji learned that simply fact-checking was not enough. He realized that the lack of digital literacy is the main cause of why people easily believe in hoaxes. People need to be educated and become digitally literate. He then developed an education strategy to address the critical thinking deficit – a digital literacy training curriculum called Tular Nalar (spread critical thinking). The curriculum has eight themes: internet-powered, internet and the classroom, internet and health, digital citizenship, internet and the family, peace internet, internet and emergency preparedness, and inclusive internet. There are also three digital competencies in the level of learning, including knowing, responding, and being resilient. MAFINDO has its volunteers become digital literacy agents, facilitating the digital literacy training and training of trainers to different audiences in their own cities, universities, and communities.

To expand the outreach, Septiaji partners with one of the biggest Islamic organizations in Indonesia, Muhammadiyah, to implement the curriculum and has engaged 1,400 lecturers, 6,000 teachers, and more than 20,000 students in 25 cities in Indonesia. Furthermore, the Tular Nalar Curriculum has been incorporated into the Indonesia Online Learning System (SPADA Indonesia) of the Ministry of Education and Culture and thus reached out to many more students who accessed the course. The interactive online learning methods of Tular Nalar help the learner gain knowledge proactively and be resilient against hoaxes. Septiaji has also engaged the Ministry of Religious Affairs to further reach out to students in religious-based schools and universities. In 2023, Tular Nalar program also got support from Google to continue to train students about digital literacy and how to prepare students as new voters for the next election. The program ensures that students can shield themselves from hoaxes, black campaigns, and any misinformation that will appear during the campaign period. The offline program reaches 6000 students across Indonesia, and the module will also be available through an online platform that MAFINDO is currently developing.

The next thing Septiaji aims for is to make everyone contribute to the movement. Septiaji actively engages with different government institutions. Based on MAFINDO research, Politics and Health issues are the most popular hoax spreading in society. This is because, in the past 10 years, politicians used hoaxes to ‘black campaign’ their opponent. In addition, during the pandemic, a lot of misinformation about vaccines and Covid drugs misled society. MAFINDO collaborates with three crucial institutions: the General Election Commission (KPU), the Election Supervisory Body (BAWASLU), and the National Agency of Drug and Food Control (BPOM). KPU and BAWASLU are working with MAFINDO to prevent and counter upcoming 2024 election misinformation. In addition, Septiaji leads the coalition of 12 civil society organizations to the partnership. The coalition will focus on strengthening the legal framework, pre-bunking, monitoring and debunking, content moderation, and election literacy. The coalition has full support from the KPU and BAWASLU at the national and local levels. The partnership with BPOM also helps the government debunk misinformation during Covid 19 period. More than 2500 hoaxes and misinformation about Covid 19 have been successfully debunked.

Furthermore, Septiaji partners with the Indonesian Police Force to ensure the application of a clear distinction between freedom of expression, hoaxes, and criminal offense. MAFINDO provided training for police officers to identify and understand hoaxes and misinformation and worked with the police force to develop a legal guideline that encourages police officers to apply restorative justice for hoax perpetrators rather than simply crack down on free speech. MAFINDO successfully transformed into the movement's core and became a magnet for government institutions. One by one, ministries and government institutions are now part of the movement to combat hoaxes. Now, local government also become MAFINDO’s partner, working with MAFINDO branches to localize digital literacy curriculum and implement it in the local ecosystem.

In building a national movement, Septiaji developed a community where everyone could join and contribute to fact-checking. Recognizing that the movement would need support from all walks of life, he traveled to different cities in Indonesia to seek support and created this volunteer network across Indonesia. Now, MAFINDO has 49 branches in 49 cities across Indonesia. The volunteers come from various backgrounds, including students, teachers, lecturers, artists, private employees, and housewives, and Septiaji has deliberately reflected that diversity in his organization. Currently, 12 of the 17 Regional Coordinators are women. Septiaji continues to identify strategic groups to join the movement. Recently he engaged senior citizens, an underestimated social media group focusing on protecting the elderly from fraud and digital crime. Septiaji found this group potentially strategic as they are very active in social media and willing to take the lead as ambassadors promoting digital literacy. Through the current online and offline Training for the Elderly in 25 cities, Septiaji has reached out to 1500 elderly people benefiting 6,000 people. In 2023, the training program received support from Google, and MAFINDO expanded the program to 6,000 elderly people in 40 cities in Indonesia. MAFINDO also creates digital literacy training for the indigenous community in Indonesia by collaborating with the local community radio network organization. Septiaji believes that the lack of infrastructure should not become boundaries for him to reach the indigenous community, which is vulnerable to misinformation and has limited access to digital technology. He identified using local radio as the primary media as the smart engagement strategy to deliver the module, which is integrated with offline training.

Septiaji was born in Wonosobo, Central Java. Being an adventurous person, his dream ever since he was a child was to study in different cities. He successfully pursued this passion from junior high to post-graduate studies and managed to study in four different cities. His master’s degree in Germany was without a scholarship so he struggled to survive with part-time jobs but was finally able to finish it.

During high school, Septiaji gained experience in social volunteering activities and learned how to organize by participating in the School Student Union (OSIS) and Student Extracurricular to Study Islam (ROHIS) activities. As a young man, he explored different ways to support access to technology and digital literacy. In 2001, he became the chairman of the ITB Computer Laboratories (Comlabs TPB), which provided and managed 200 computers for ITB students. Invited by the Directorate General of Vocational Study of Ministry of Education, Septiaji also participated in compiling the network technology curriculum for Vocational High School (SMK) which later became the pioneer of the national curriculum. This experience provided an experience for Septiaji on how to make a curriculum applicable to the wider community.

Upon his return to Indonesia in 2005, he started his own business in information technology, computer networks and applications. In 2014, Septiaji became active on social media, and observed various problems, especially the spread of misinformation. The turning point for him was after the 2014 general election, when online misinformation began to polarize people and turned into violent conflict in 2016. Septiaji felt very worried about the situation and was horrified to see even his educated colleagues spreading the misinformation. Motivated to change this, he and his friends who shared common concerns agreed to create MAFINDO to fight hoaxes.