REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- The social media observer, Nukman Luthfie, argued that the blockage of some websites should be the last way to restrain the rate of hate speech. He said, the society should be educated first.

Nukman explained, based on the revised version of the Act of Information and Electronic Transactions (UU ITE) Article 4, the government had been obliged to take action to restrain the dissemination of hate speech. The level was increased from only recommendation to an obligation. "Blocking is the last way. Why? Because the society should be educated," he said, Thursday (Jan 5).

He said the government should conduct media, social media and digital literacy.  Blocking would be tiresome. Whenever the government blocked the site, the owner of them would create a new site with a different domain.

"If we blocked the sites, later they would appear again with a new domain, blocked-appeared again. Therefore blocking should be the last way," he said.

Digital literacy becomes important. People often shared links without previously clicked it, just because of hatred of certain parties.

Nukman explained, there are sites built for the money. The sites' administrators create content for the sake of the traffic (clicks ranked). He gets a lot of advertising. For such cases, blocking is somewhat effective.  "They will cry over the blocked sites because their income is going down," he said.

However, there are other sites built to propagate a particular ideology. Blocking of these sites would have no effect. They will easily create a new site.  "If we blocked them, different site will occur. They won't care about money. The block is legitimate just because it suits to the law, but it does not solve the problem," he said.

If there was any violation of law, he said, the government must pursue its management. There should be a dialogue. If there is something to be changed or corrected, ask the site manager to modify or improve the content. "Is there any site with one hundred percent of hate speech contents? No, I have never heard about it," said Nukman.

Ikuti Whatsapp Channel Republika