Faculty of Social and Political Sciences Universitas Gadjah Mada collaborating with Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information as well as Creation Cyber Team held an event named as Digital Literacy Festival. The event is one of the collaborative commitments to hold a campaign regarding digital literacy.
The event which was purposely held to educate the community to be wise in using social media was opened for all people. The event which was held on Sunday (15/10) at Faculty of Social and Political Sciences UGM consisted of two sessions, workshop and talkshow. It presented several keynote speakers, including Rudiantara (Minister of Communication and Information), Prof. Panut Mulyono, M.Eng., D.Eng. (UGM Rector), and Prof. Dr. H. Nasaruddin Umar, M.A. (Professor at National Islamic University Syarif Hidayatullah).
In the occasion, Minister Rudiantara said currently the government was focusing on cyberspace contents and how the community responds to the negative contents. He said the issue of negative contents in cyberspace is not only faced by Indonesia but also many countries in the world. Each country has a different response regarding the negative contents. In Germany, the government quickly issued a law to address hoax issue.
“Indonesia also gives a fast response which is done through the drafting of Government Regulation in Lieu of Law,” said the Minister.
According to Minister Rudiantara, currently, social media in Indonesia has been outrageous. It can be seen from the abundant negative contents. He further said beside positive things, some people use social media negatively. Responding to the issue, the Minister has two ways to address the negative contents. First, it can be addressed by prevention which is by blocking, account disbanding, and so forth. However, according to the Minister, it does not give a lesson towards the community in the future and the government will be considered repressive.
“The other thing is what we call as literacy. It is how to make the community becomes aware of using social and digital media wisely,” he added.
On the other hand, UGM Rector, Prof. Panut Mulyono also highlighted the advancement of the digital era that is not responded wisely by some people. According to Panut, if we are not careful, all of us will also receive all kinds of information including hoax, provocative contents, etc. Therefore, Digital Literacy Festival became an essential event that educated us on how to use digital technology wisely, thus it can give many benefits for all people.
“UGM continues to encourage the digital literacy, one of them is through Central for Digital Society (CFDS) whose job is about digital literacy,” said Panut.