It's difficult to find Family MCA mastermind: Police

REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA -- National Police pledged to investigate throughly the Family Muslim Cyber Army (MCA) case. The police have been trying to find the mastermind of the group that specialized in spreading false news (hoax).

However, the institution admitted the difficulty in solving the case. "There are millions social media users in Indonesia, so it's not easy to find Family MCA's mastermind," said National Police spokesman Setyo Wasisto on Wednesday (April 25).

Setyo said the police could not investigate even 10 accounts per day. He explained investigation technique in handling cyber crime are complicated. It needed extraordinary efforts.

"It is a time consuming process," he said.

Also read: Police found 300 provocative contents in a month

Family MCA is a group that produced fake news circulating in social medias. The group has allegedly spreaded provocative issues related to sentiments against tribal affiliation, religion, race, and societal groups (SARA) through social medias and chat applications.

Previously, seven suspects of the Family MCA case had been arrested in several regions. On February 26, the police simultaneously catched Muhamad Luth at Sunter, North Jakarta; RSD in Pangkal Pinang, Bangka Belitung, RS in Jembrana, Bali, Yus in Sumedang, West Java, and RC in Palu, Central Sulawesi, and one other suspect in Yogyakarta. Meanwhile, Bobby Gustiono was arrested March 4 in North Sumatra.

MCA group allegedly frequently blast several provocative issues through social medias and chat applications. They were the party behind the spread of some provocative issues, such as Indonesian Communist Party, ulemas kidnapping, defamation to the president and the government as well as particular figures.

Police also accused them to have spread spam or virus to people or opposing parties. The virus could harm electronic devices.

The suspects have violated several laws including the Law of Information and Electronic Transaction, as well as the Law of Racial and Ethnicity Discrimination.

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