Bima Calls for Rapid Responses and Unified Narratives to Counter Disinformation

Deputy Home Affairs Minister Bima Arya Sugiarto says government agencies can no longer wait several days to answer a viral claim. In Indonesia’s digital information environment, he argued, a delayed response leaves room for speculation and misleading narratives to take hold.

Speaking at a coordination forum in Jakarta, Bima described a sharp change in how information reaches the public. “In the past, the media stage was driven by the government,” he said, recalling a time when officials designed releases and pushed them through government channels.

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In the past, the media stage was driven by the government.

“Now it is the other way around: people see, record and upload something, it goes viral, a perception is formed, and then the government responds,” Bima said. He called the two models extreme and warned that authorities should not treat the new pattern as routine.

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Now it is the other way around: people see, record and upload something, it goes viral, a perception is formed, and then the government responds.

Bima praised local governments that have created dedicated cyber-hoax units. He said some cities move within hours when hoaxes, defamation or hate speech appear, offering what he described as a balanced response before the narrative spreads further.

Speed, however, was only one part of his message. Bima urged government communications offices to help shape policies from the beginning, rather than joining only when a program is ready to launch. Officials should agree early on a dominant, coordinated narrative, he said, while using media monitoring not only to measure reactions to policies but also to read broader public sentiment.

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We appreciate that some local governments have dedicated cyber-hoax units that counter this.