IDNEWSNOW.COM, Jakarta – The Indonesian Police’s virtual police feature will now monitor hate speech contents on the WhatsApp messenger app. The police chief of the public relations division, Senior Commissioner Ahmad Ramadhan, said it had received a report on one WhatsApp content.
“If it’s a WhatsApp group, it can [be monitored],” said Ramadhan when confirmed on Saturday, March 13, explaining that the virtual police will give a user warning once the feature receives a report from the public.
For example, a WA group member can report to the police a chat or a post with hate speech content on their group chat by attaching a screenshot proving the hate content. The authorities will then follow up on the reported content and examine if it really is hate speech.
“But don’t think that you can commit slander or spread hate by using certain other platforms. It’s not like that. The virtual police warn accounts whatever the platform is,” Ramadan said.
Until March 11, the police had sent a warning to 89 social media accounts, addressed to the users suspected to have spread information that insults ethnicity, race, religion, and inter-community (SARA).
Read: Police to Send Virtual Alert to People Making Hate Speech on Social Media
ANDITA RAHMA
