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UNESCO welcomes the winners of Media and Information Literacy Hackathon in Indonesia “Pathway to Peaceful Polls”
"The circulation of hate speech and disinformation online is a complex issue with real life effects that can exacerbate the existing tensions and divisions in a society. This potential for real consequences is intensified in periods of elections. While there can be no quick, one-size-fits-all solution for addressing this issue, we need everyone to be on board and making an effort to increase societal resilience to content like disinformation and hate speech,” said Ana Lomatdze, Head of the Communication and Information Unit at UNESCO Multisectoral Regional Office in Jakarta.
According to UNESCO/IPSOS survey in 16 countries, which included Indonesia, 85% of citizens are concerned about the impact of online disinformation; 87% of people believe that this disinformation has had a major impact on political life in their country.
In this context and within the framework of the project “” funded by the European Union, UNESCO supported the organisation of a hackathon for media and information literacy in partnership with the Nakara Foundation in Indonesia. The hackathon was held on 14 and 15 December 2023 in the Math and Sciences Auditorium, Indonesian Education University in Bandung in West Java, gathering youth and media outlets as competitors in creation of solutions for using digital technologies for peacebuilding and countering disinformation and hate speech. Notably, 49 people representing 5 media and 5 university teams from Bandung, Indramayu, Jakarta, Manado, Malang, Solo, and Sukabumi were selected to be the ten finalists competing in two categories of the hackathon – one for media and one for university students.
Winning the first place for the media category was the ZonaUtara.com team from North Sulawesi with their the TAGIH JANJI (Bail the promises) website project, while and the team representing the Raden Rahmat Islamic University from Malang won the first place in the category for university students with their AI HOAX BUSTER solution – a browser extension for AI-based fact-checking and analysis of content.
“We welcome the efforts of all teams in the hackathon,” said Ana Lomatdze, “It showed commitment on their part to work proactively for peacebuilding in important periods like this.” At the same time, Executive Director of Nakara Foundation Melanie Agustine underlined the need to continue encouraging such efforts by supporting the finalists of the hackathon to develop their prototypes further.
We decided to participate in the hackathon because we wanted not just to report on the elections but also to underline the importance of critical thinking about information, especially during elections. Therefore, Tagih Janji or (Bail the Promises) project is part of our efforts to safeguard democracy. The idea for this project has been there already for several years now.
The awarding ceremony took place on 15 December 2023 after two-days of intensive mentoring and hackathon sessions.
Representing the Raden Rahmat Islamic University team, Rachmad Imam stated, “I would like to thank all the parties involved in organizing this hackathon. Together, we learned, and we tried. The training we received throughout the hackathon has especially sharpened our skills to fight disinformation and hate speech.”
Winning Category: Media
1st place: TAGIH JANJI (Bail the Promises) by ZonaUtara.com, North Sulawesi
Tagih Janji (Bail the Promises) is a website (https://zonautara.com/tagih-janji-2/) to collect and document all the promises of the legislative candidates in North Sulawesi during the election campaign. It is open for the public in North Sulawesi to ask the elected legislative members for the promises they once made. All profiles of legislative candidates and political parties in North Sulawesi, with a total number of 4,725 legislative candidates from 63 election areas are available on Tagih Janji. The public can filter based on several criteria and also map-based. The legislative candidates could also add information about his/her profile. The public can interact through the platform and record the promises of the legislative candidates or political parties on the platform.
2nd place: GUARDIAN AI by TV9, Surabaya
Helping the government fight hoaxes, creating an AI-based downstream portal that can make it easier for the public to verify news. The AI method used is NLP to clean news texts and make predictions using Bi-LSTM Deep Learning technology to detect words in the future and the past.
3rd place: HOAX BUSTER by Liputan6.com, Jakarta
A creative community-based intervention to invite the public at large to fight hoaxes in fun and persuasive ways by joining the community at liputan6.com/cek-fakta which is available on the Universe application. The person who joins the community will get points, but first, they will need to take a fact-checking training organized monthly by Liputan6.com. Second, the members can report suspicious content they found on social media. Third, the members can check misinformation related to the 2024 Election that has not been verified to Chatbot Liputan6.com. Finally, the community members can share his/her findings through a Fact Check WhatsApp group Liputan6.com.
4th place: TEMPO NEWS GAME by Tempo Media Lab, Jakarta
A hox vaccine is present in an educative and interactive game to identify whether news, articles, infographics, and videos are hoaxes. The user can pre-bunk news through the game. When the users want to play the game, they will first be provided with knowledge to filter (saring) before sharing news.
5th place: THE TRUTH GUARDIAN by SOLOPOS Media Group, Solo
The Truth Guardian initially named Kill the Hoax Boss, is an interactive and educative game to fight the spread of hoaxes with fun. The platform is intended for young people who are skeptical and critical of social media content. It is a multilevel interactive game in the form of trivia. It has three rounds of play with the explanation of the hoax and its classification.
Winning Category: University Students
1st place: AI HOAX BUSTER by Islamic University of Raden Rahmat (UNIRA), Malang.
A Chrome extension to get insight into content before we consume it. The Chrome extension will analyze content indicated with hoaxes, misinformation, disinformation, and biases. Assisted by open AI, fact-checking, and similar visual-checking buttons.
2nd place: MR. DEFACTO by Steins Gate team, Nusaputra University, Sukabumi.
An interactive game to fight disinformation with the key figure, Mr Defacto. The player will act as a detective in cyberspace who fights against disinformation. His/her task is to use analysis and logic to identify the truth about information. The player will be asked to find one post which relates to a hoax or disinformation and needs to be reported. The players will also be asked why the post needs to be reported. If the answer is wrong users will get a points deduction and if she/he answers right, she/he will receive points.
3rd place: UNCOVERING THE TRUTH by Mengindo Aja team, Education University of Indonesia, Bandung.
An interactive game to combat disinformation. In this game, the person has the power to safe his/her family, creating awareness of the importance of information literacy. The game is designed for various categories of age using a user-friendly interface, the game invites users to explore the general election world and to understand political issues. Not only does the game teach the users about information literacy but also raises political awareness through public involvement.
4th place: HOAX SLASHER by Indramayu State Polytechnic team.
An application that can detect news related to general elections either factual or nonfactual. The application is present and equipped with the NPI-mobile and web apps. The team collected data from various resources such as Kominfo, Narasi TV, CNN, and others. If we log in to the mobile apps, we can get all the information related to news about one of the presidential candidates by typing a keyword and the media (for example CNN).
5th place: HERO PEACE TEAM by Islamic State University of Sunan Ampel team, Surabaya.
Building digital-based creative communities spread across various universities by empowering students as agents through the use of social media, using FYP local TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
The finalists’ work and videos of work presentations are available through the website: https://nakara.odoo.com/hackathon-display.
