PUBLIC COMMUNICATION FOR HANDLING HOAX ABOUT COVID-16 VACCINE:

A CONTENT ANALYSIS ON OFFICIAL SOCIAL MEDIA OF MINISTRY OF

COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATICS, INDONESIA

Tongat
Faculty of Law, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang

Salahudin

Government Studies, Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang

Abstract
There have been many victims of the circulation of hoaxes about the Covid-19 vaccine,
especially for people with low literacy capacity. The impact is the community's non-compliance
to carry out vaccinations. Thus, this research was carried out with the aim of knowing how the
role and process of managing Twitter social media belonging to the Ministry of Communications
and Informatics are through published content in order to stem hoaxes about the Covid-19
vaccine. This research was carried out using a qualitative descriptive method with the help of the
Nvivo 12 Plus software application and utilizing the Ncapture feature, which is considered
effective in helping qualitative research efficiently. This study reveals that the Indonesian
government actively uses Twitter as a means of communication to control the spread of hoaxes
about the Covid-19 vaccine, which is indicated by the high intensity of postings, actor
involvement and relations, narratives, and education related to information and disinformation
about the Covid-19 vaccine.This research contributes to the hoax handling strategy through
social media that can be implemented through government policies and programs. In addition,
this study also illustrates that the study of communication about hoaxes on social media can be
carried out systematically through the use of social media data with analysis using content
analysis applications such as NVivo 12 Plus.

Keywords: Covid-19, Vaccination, Hoax; Communication, Information, Disinformation, Policy,

Community.

Introduction
Vaccination is imperative to control the spread of disease, but more and more people are
distrusting vaccines and are choosing not to (completely) vaccinate themselves and their
children. This mistrust is the anti-vaccination misinformation available on the internet, where
people search and discuss health information freely. The language people use in these
discussions can provide insight into views on vaccination. Anti-vaccine commentary is
characterized by greater analytical thinking as well as lower authenticity (Faasse et al., 2016).
Vaccines are undoubtedly one of the most successful and cost-effective health interventions,
both at the individual and community level. Regardless of its effectiveness, vaccine hesitation,
“reluctance or refusal to vaccinate despite vaccination services available”, has the potential to
have the power to reverse the advantages of vaccination (Cossard et al., 2020).
A major milestone in the fight against this pandemic is the rapid and successful
development of various vaccines against COVID-19. Successful vaccination against COVID-19
can not only reduce the burden of disease but also help us to return to the pre-COVID world
without restrictions on movement and socialization. However, the vaccination campaign against
COVID-19 is threatened by “Infodemic”, “misinformation,” and “disinformation”. The global
vaccination campaign against COVID-19 is an unprecedented operation that has also been met
with a strong response from the anti-vaccine community, which is currently using all available
channels to manipulate public opinion (Farooq & Rathore, 2021).
Over the past few years, the existence of online disinformation and the malicious agents
acting as sources of such disinformation have been acknowledged. The creation, dissemination,
and consumption of disinformation and false content on social media is a growing concern,
especially with the ease of access to these sources, and the lack of awareness of the existence of
such false information. Disinformation is false information that is spread intentionally with the
intent to mislead and/or deceive. Many researchers also use the term “hoax” (derived from
hocus, which means to deceive or deceive), to refer to intentionally false information. Hoaxes are
messages that are created with the aim of spreading to large numbers of people, to “persuade or
manipulate others to perform or prevent predetermined actions, mostly by means of threats or
deception” (Shu et al., 2020).
Rumors and conspiracy theories thrive in an environment of low self-confidence and low
trust. Consequently, it is not surprising that those associated with the COVID-19 pandemic are
proliferating given the lack of scientific consensus on the spread and containment of the virus, or
on the long-term social and economic consequences of the pandemic (Shahsavari et al., 2020).
Belief in COVID-19 conspiracy theories positively exerts the direct negative effect of COVID-
19 conspiracy beliefs on adherence to Covid-19 preventive measures. Conspiracy beliefs are
indirectly related to compliance through trust in government officials (Pavela Banai et al., 2021).
Social media for news consumption is a double-edged sword. With the increasing
popularity of social media, more and more people are consuming news from social media than
traditional news media. However, social media has also been used to spread fake news, which
has a strong negative impact on individual users and society at large. On the one hand, the low
cost, easy access, and rapid dissemination of information make people search for and consume
news from social media. On the other hand, it allows the spread of “fake news”, i.e. low-quality
news with intentionally false information. Fake news is intentionally written to mislead readers
into believing false information. The wide spread of fake news has the potential to have a very
negative impact on individuals and society (Shu et al., 2016).

Social media has played an essential role in polarizing views on politics, climate change,
and more recently, the Covid-19 pandemic. On the other hand, social media is full of possible
false and misleading content, such as the Covid-19 variant and its cure and the role of
vaccination in fighting Covid-19, as well as cyber risks. Recently, people posted content related
to Covid-19 and the impact of vaccinations which has impacted people to avoid using the
vaccine, which led to fear of other variants of Covid-19 and resulted in the slow progress of
immunization or vaccination. Lockdowns or lockdowns at national and regional levels during the
Covid-19 pandemic have led people to spend more time on social media discussing their views
on the virus and vaccines (Modgil et al., 2021). As the global COVID-19 pandemic continues to
challenge communities worldwide, and as access to accurate information about the virus itself
and what is in our communities continues to be limited, rumors and conspiracy theories will
continue to thrive (Shahsavari et al., 2020).
Social media plays a vital role in the dissemination and consumption of information
during a pandemic, even more so with increasing social distancing and increasing reliance on
online communication (Sharma et al., 2020). False claims about a COVID-19 vaccine could
undermine public confidence in the ongoing vaccination campaign, thus posing a threat to global
public health. Misinformation from multiple sources has spread online since the start of the
COVID-19 pandemic (Muric et al., 2021).
Infodemics, which often contain rumors, stigma, and conspiracy theories, have become
commonplace during the COVID-19 pandemic. Monitoring social media data has been identified
as the best method for tracking rumors in real-time and as a possible way to eliminate
misinformation and reduce stigma. Misinformation fueled by rumors, stigma, and conspiracy
theories can have potentially serious implications for individuals and communities if prioritized
over evidence-based guidelines. Health agencies should track misinformation related to COVID-
19 in real-time, and engage local communities and government stakeholders to debunk
misinformation (Islam et al., 2020).

The global COVID-19 pandemic is a challenge in itself, especially for the Indonesian
government. One of them is in the delivery of information related to COVID-19. The existence
of this great pandemic also produces a variety of information that can cause tension for the
community. Therefore, effective and appropriate government communication is needed to the
community regarding this pandemic. In today's digital era, social media can be an ideal means
and source of information to find out public opinion. So that social media provides the right and
comfortable space to create social interaction between the government and the community. But
on the other hand, this digital communication transformation also has an impact on the spread of
illegal information, where individuals can create information that will have an impact on other
social media users. Hence, the government's role is needed to control the flow of information on
social media so that the information is right on target and follows whether or not hoax news is
true (Putri Pratiwi et al., 2021).
Governments should make effective use of social media while taking into account the
significant diversity of characteristics and inherent risks of social media, as well as
contemplating its potential practical use as a channel for government service delivery and
communications. Social media is expected to produce a direct service effect through increasing
the effectiveness of communication using direct relationships and communication between
citizens and their government. In addition, government social media has the benefits of deep and
broad communication and is able to create, maintain, and strengthen relationships with citizens
in a more straightforward, economical, and effective way when compared to existing
communication channels (Park et al., 2016).

Literature Review
Previous research on Covid-19 vaccination
Facebook, as the world's most popular social media platform, has played various
important roles during the COVID-19 pandemic, enabling users to generate and share health-
related information that makes and complicates public health communications. Al-Zaman's
study, (2021) analyzed the 10,000 most popular Facebook posts with the highest interactions on
vaccine issues. The results show that Facebook users prioritize vaccine-related news links
(71.22%) over other content. The decline in interactions on this issue suggests that the growth of
interactions is primarily dependent on positive news about vaccines. In the end, user reactions to
vaccine issues are predominantly positive, although they may exhibit a very negative attitude
towards vaccine misinformation. In recent years, vaccine resistance has surged, increasing polio
cases. Fear of American and Jewish conspiracies is a major cause of vaccine rejection. Militant
groups such as the Tehrek-i-Taliban Pakistan take advantage of this fear, via social media. They
are suspicious of the investment and mass mobilization behind the polio campaign. Concerns
about side effects, behavioral barriers to health care providers, unmet basic needs and the alleged
illicit composition of vaccines are some of the reasons for refusing vaccines (Khan et al., 2020).

Previous research on the stigma of Covid-19 vaccination

Baines, Ittefaq and Abwao (2021) reveal the five main themes of discussion by netizens
on the Parler platform covering topics such as reasons for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine
(40%), side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine (28%), population control through the COVID
vaccine. -19 (23%), vaccinated children without vaccine. parental consent (5%), and
comparisons of other health issues with COVID-19 (2%). Historically, discussions on the topic
of vaccines have resulted in false and misleading claims, false content, and conspiracy theories
around the world. Misinformation and conspiracy theories can spread faster on social media than
mainstream media and these conspiracy theories have influenced the way people think about
vaccinations, leading people to question the need for immunizations. Exposure to online
information discussing vaccinations critically leads to stronger anti-vaccine beliefs, because
individuals do not consider the credibility of the content. These findings have implications for
public health communications in an attempt to correct false narratives on social media platforms.
Research by Jamison et al., (2020) using 1.8 million vaccine-related tweets compiled
from 2014 to 2017, found that 22% of the dataset was anti-vaccine, with security concerns and
conspiracies being the most common themes. 17% of the content identified as pro-vaccine, with
roughly the same proportion of vaccine promotion, criticizing anti-vaccine beliefs, as well as
vaccine safety and effectiveness. With this information, communication efforts can be developed
to better promote vaccines and avoid amplifying anti-vaccine rhetoric on Twitter. It is also
important to communicate with Twitter users wishing to defend vaccines that the humor used to
criticize anti-vaccine tweets and anti-science tweets can inadvertently mislead and provoke
further research. Future research efforts should explore specific communication strategies and
extend similar approaches to mapping vaccine discourse and related misinformation on
additional platforms.

Previous research on health and covid-19 information hoaxes on social media

The COVID-19 pandemic is a global health crisis, making compliance with government
policies and public health advice critical in reducing transmission rates. At the same time, we are
faced with the rapid spread of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. The importance of
communicating government information about COVID-19 to combat is not only on the spread of
the corona virus but also the spread of misinformation. The current pandemic represents a
situation where it is imperative to follow the recommendations of reliable scientific sources. At
the same time, conspiracy theories are on the rise during social crisis situations such as the
current pandemic. Not only are they on the rise, but they are very easy to spread through social
media platforms. In fact, studies have shown a positive relationship between COVID-19
conspiracy beliefs and the use of social media as a source of information about the pandemic.
The findings also point to some practical implications for policy makers and government
communications aimed at reducing the spread of infection. Direct communication to this
population group (adolescents and men) may be beneficial for infection control (Banai et al.,
2020).
About 50% of the sample population showed little evidence of conspiracy thinking, 25%
indicated a level of support, 15% showed a consistent pattern of support, and 10% had a very
high level of support. Higher levels of corona virus conspiracy thinking are associated with a
lack of compliance with all government guidelines and a lack of willingness to carry out
diagnostic or antibody tests or to be vaccinated. Such ideas are also associated with paranoia,
general vaccination conspiracy beliefs, climate change conspiracy beliefs, conspiracy mentality,
and distrust of institutions and the profession (Freeman et al., 2020). Anti-Vaccine messages
mostly use Anecdotal stories, Humor/Sarcasm, and Celebrity Figures as persuasion techniques,
while Pro-Vaccine messages mainly use Information, Celebrity Figures, and Participation.
Results also show Anti-Vaccine messages mainly focus on values related to the categories
Security, Political/Conspiracy Theory, and Choice. The results reveal that Anti-Vaccine
messages mainly use Perceived Severity and Perceived Susceptibility, which are elements of fear
appeal (Scannell et al., 2021).
Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation on social media have raised concerns about the
use of the COVID-19 vaccine needed to achieve herd immunity and contain the pandemic.
However, anti-science and political misinformation and conspiracies have run rampant during
the pandemic. Especially on social media, one of which is the spread of misinformation or
conspiracy on Twitter. Diffusion on the Twitter social network occurs when an account retweets
(RT) or re-shares tweets from other accounts. Since RT is considered a form of content
endorsement (assuming retweets without comments, i.e., we do not include tweets cited as
retweets), RT charts are often used to group accounts with similar opinions (Sharma et al., 2021).

Previous research on handling hoaxes on social media by the government

The participation of followers of government social media accounts influences their
information security behavior through perceived severity, perceived vulnerability, self-efficacy,
and response efficacy. Government social media accounts (GSM) are online profiles created and
maintained by government agencies on social media. Government agencies use GSM to provide
better information and services and help build closer relationships with citizens. Exposure to
Government Social Media resulting in posts about COVID-19 fraud increases individual
protection motivation and then positively contributes to preventive action. We find that
Government Social Media participation positively influences threat assessment and
countermeasures. In particular, threat assessment and countermeasures are partly developed
through Government Social Media participation. Government Social Media also provides
information to followers about the potential countermeasures against COVID-19 fraud that foster
their perceptions of self-efficacy and responses (Tang et al., 2021).
This shows that online news commentary is a place to understand people's reactions to
public health issues. Today, the biggest challenge to eradicate polio in Pakistan is
misinformation on the internet. The main challenge facing Pakistan today is how the government
can combat the spread of misinformation on the internet. In 2019, the Pakistani government
urged Facebook and YouTube to remove harmful and false information related to polio
vaccination. The Pakistani government needs a multi-systematic and comprehensive plan to
counter misinformation from online platforms. The Pakistani government is gradually trying to
implement concrete and effective plans to tackle this new emerging problem. For example,
several attempts have been made through Facebook and Google to fight misinformation on the
internet. In addition, digital literacy campaigns need to ensure outreach among Pakistan's rural
and tribal communities on polio (Ittefaq et al., 2021).
The current situation shows that police and public security agencies around the world (in
collaboration with Think Tank institutions and academic working groups, as well as Non-
Governmental Organizations) are aware of this threat. Both EUROPOL and Interpol have
employed a comprehensive communications strategy involving information campaigns directed
at both the professional community and the general public aimed at mitigating the consequences
of the misuse of information and telecommunications technologies (Grado, 2020).
Indeed, misinformation was the main culprit even before this incident, but the Pakistani
government has diverted its attention and resources to fighting this problem. For example,
Pakistan has launched its Perception Management Initiative (PMI) and blocked more than 700
social media pages related to anti-vaccination propaganda. The main challenge facing Pakistan
today is how the government can combat the spread of misinformation on the internet. In 2019,
the Pakistani government urged Facebook and YouTube to remove harmful and false
information related to polio vaccination. Recently, misinformation emerged as a significant
problem in Pakistan regarding polio and polio vaccines which is also reflected in our findings
from online comments. Social networking sites spread rumors and misinformation about the
effects of the polio vaccine. The Pakistani government is gradually trying to implement concrete
and effective plans to tackle this new emerging problem. For example, several attempts have
been made through Facebook and Google to combat misinformation on the internet (Ittefaq et al.,
2021).

Previous research on social media as a strategy to prevent hoaxes

To maintain the consistency and commitment of Muhammadiyah people, MCCC always
strives to continuously share all kinds of information related to the Covid-19 protocol. The
communication channels or media used are quite diverse, including through television
broadcasts, radio broadcasts, webinars, press conferences, press releases, covid 19 call center
services, social media and direct coordination with related parties. The agenda shows that the
MCCC from the beginning, has carried out various socialization and socialization activities
related to the Covid-19 prevention protocol in various sectors. Starting from the 4M movement
(wearing masks, keeping distance, washing hands and doing activities at home) as well as several
other educational programs (Suherman et al., 2021).
The Government's Polio Eradication Initiative needs to revise its misleading
nomenclature and initiate open discussions to dispel the myths of infertility, vulgarity and gender
ratios associated with vaccines. Simultaneously, the Pakistani government must stop
disinformation on social media and rebrand polio vaccination with popular initiatives such as
government-sponsored health insurance schemes. The Government's Polio Eradication Initiative
Institute and the Immunization Expansion Program and its partners must make maximum use of
social media to disseminate accurate information to the public. Propaganda against vaccination
on social media must be controlled. Anti-terrorism and cybercrime laws should be implemented
to confront militant groups, who use social media to promote resistance, based on false religious
ideas (Khan et al., 2020).
Government communications usually have high credibility and a broad base of support.
The official message had a positive influence on the competition for spreading true and false
rumors. The spread of official messages affects the process of spreading rumors and influencing
public opinion, so it can be seen as an effective measure to positively influence behavior in an
emergency to dispel suspicion and reduce irrational behavior. In summary, it can be interpreted
that the effective dissemination of official messages can eliminate false rumors and verify true
rumors to break the impact of spreading competitive rumors (Xu et al., 2016). Effective public
communication has been proposed as a remedy for citizens' distrust of government. Public
communication is expected to increase public trust in information issued by the government
(Alon-Barkat, 2020).
Twitter can provide an excellent opportunity to understand public opinion regarding the
COVID-19 vaccine. Twitter can provide advice on sentiment and semantic trends in COVID-19
vaccines, although limitations mean that they should be interpreted with caution. Twitter is the
only practical source of large-scale content from the public for developing this type of study. In
theory, it is possible to apply similar large-scale analysis to data from social media platform
sources, such as Facebook. The findings show that negative sentiment regarding the COVID-19
vaccine experienced a downward trend between November 2020 and February 2021. (Karami et
al., 2021).
Method
This study uses a qualitative research approach. A qualitative research method is one of
the research procedures that construct descriptive data in the form of speech or writing and the
behavior of the people being observed, while qualitative descriptive research is aimed at
describing and describing existing phenomena, both natural and human-engineered, which pay
more attention to characteristics, quality, interrelationships between activities. This research uses
qualitative descriptive analysis by analyzing the communication activities of the Ministry of
Communication and Informatics of the Republic of Indonesia through social media Twitter, so
that it can add in-depth information for readers. Data collection was through @kemkominfo as a
government agency account from the Ministry of Communication and Informatics of the
Republic of Indonesia as one of the people in charge of handling related to the provision of
COVID-19 information and stemming the flow of hoax information related to COVID-19
vaccination in Indonesia. The selection of this account is part of seeing government
communication activities and government interactions through the Twitter account
@kemkominfo. This article can analyze the communication activities carried out by the
government through the RI Ministry of Communication and Informatics in stemming the flow of
hoax information related to the COVID-19 Vaccination. The analysis in this study uses the
Nvivo 12 Plus software on the NCapture feature. NVivo software is one of the qualitative data
analysis tools used by many qualitative researchers around the world. This feature is able to pull
data from Twitter social media systematically and deeply.

Results
Kurniawan et al., (2021) stated that social media is considered to have high effectiveness
in conveying information to the public. The advent of social media has changed the
communications landscape of organizations, enabling organizations to build symmetrical two-
way communication programs. Therefore, it is hoped that organizations will use social media to
effectively communicate their efforts and, thereby, build public trust, and that social media can
offer new opportunities for transparency and interactivity with stakeholders, which in turn can
trigger positive evaluations of the image and organizational reputation, which generates public
trust in both the short and long term (Kollat and Farache, 2017).
The Ministry of Communication and Informatics of the Republic of Indonesia
(Kemkominfo RI) has a Twitter social media account with the username @kemkominfo which is
then the main point in this research. The account belonging to the Indonesian Ministry of
Communication and Informatics, @kemkominfo has joined Twitter since August 2010, so it has
been more than 11 years since the @kemkominfo twitter account has become part of Twitter
users. The presence of the @kemkominfo account is an effort by the government to make it
easier for the public to obtain various kinds of information and make it easier for the government
to communicate with the public.
Social media accounts belonging to the Ministry of Communication and Informatics of
the Republic of Indonesia have an essential role to always be regular and intense in conveying
various information, education, and easy access for the public. The more often the account is
active on social media, primarily to provide education to the public, the communication strategy
related to education and important information from the Indonesian Ministry of Communication
and Informatics to the community is considered successful. This success is also supported by the
high involvement of the public in responding to any information or Twitter activity of the
@kemkominfo account through feedback or responses to particular messages or content being
shared. Thus, it is important to know how often the @kemkominfo account is active and able to
seize the attention of its followers or other users.

Figure 1. The intensity of the Ministry of Communication and Informatics’ posts about Covid-
19 news and False Information on Twitter Social Media.
 Based on the data from the image above, it can be seen that the results of the calculation
of the number of activities carried out by the @kemkominfo account on Twitter. The time frame
taken is from April 2021 to February 2022. The choice of this month to review and analyze
@kemkominfo tweet activity is because these months are a period when the vaccination agenda
is being promoted by the government following the high rate of increase in Covid-19 patients.
The data displayed shows a fluctuating trend, where the number of tweet activities carried out
does not experience a periodic increase or decrease. Tweet activity shows a different amount
every month, in a few months it increases, and vice versa. This number also shows how the
management of the @kemkominfo account does not experience a consistent trend or pattern.
The next analysis is related to the trend of using hashtags by the @kemkominfo account,
which is closely related to covid-19 information and covid-19 vaccinations. The use of hashtags
is done as an indication of the intent of writing information in each tweet that includes the
hashtag. The use of hashtags can be used as a tool to show the enthusiasm of Twitter users
towards an agenda that is being discussed. The use of hashtags is an activity that should not be
missed. Hashtags can be used on Twitter to attach tweets to broader discussions and allow other
Twitter users to follow specific topics and related hashtags. Twitter allows to respond to or invite
certain other users by adding an @ marker before the username of the targeted user, to retweet
messages created by other Twitter users, and to tag messages using hashtags (with a # sign) and
share links to websites. Hashtags have been used to select data sets for analysis, and to identify
ad-hoc publics on Twitter (Hellsten and Leydesdorff, 2020).
Figure 2. The use of hashtags by the Ministry of Communication and Informatics for handling
hoaxes about Covid-19 and Vaccinations.

The data from the image above is based on processing the mention of hashtags in every
tweet activity carried out by the @kemkominfo account. The use of the hashtag #sobatkom is the
mention that dominates all tweet activities carried out so that it reaches 47 percent, followed by
the hashtags #bersamakominfo and the hashtags #kitamakintahu. It should be noted that as an
official social media belonging to a state institution, it is important to include all information on
program activities in its official social media. Information on the program of activities is
intended as an institutional effort to maintain the quality and level of transparency of the
institution to the public.
The next study is about the relationship or communication relationships that are netted
with the accounts of other Twitter users. This relationship or relationship is formed from the
results of the activity of mentioning (mentioning), replying (replying), and re-tweeting. These
features are utilized by including the mention of usernames from other Twitter accounts in their
tweet activity. Thus, these activities need to be studied and analyzed in an effort to find out
which users are actively involved in social media activities with the @kemkominfo account and
can show how active the @kemkominfo account is is in communicating with followers or other
users. Relationships with other actors can illustrate how ICW establishes communication with
the principles of openness and freedom in receiving responses and responses from users or other
actors who share the same views with @kemkominfo.

Figure 3. The relationship between the Ministry of Ministry of Communication and Informatics
with other actors in handling Hoaxes about Covid-19 and Vaccination on Twitter social media.
The picture above shows some of the names of actors who interacted with the
@kemkominfo account in the last few months. It shows the analysis of the relationship or
interaction of the @kemkominfo account with other actors based on some tweet activity. From
the results of the data above, it appears that the @kemkominfo account actively interacts with
several actors who have the same opinion and purpose of each tweet activity carried out by each
actor. One of the actors who has the highest number of mentions with the @kemkominfo account
is the account belonging to the Minister of Communication and Informatics, Johnny G. Plate
with the user account name being @platejohnny.
 Fig
ure 4. The Narrative of the Ministry of Information about hoaxes related to issues surrounding
Covid-19 on Twitter social media.

Based on the picture above, most of the narratives related to the word “hoax” are attempts
by the @kemkominfo account to clarify various false information that roam any social media. Of
course, the topics of the false information are narratives related to Covid-19 news and
vaccinations. Some of the narratives that are most often discussed by the @kemkominfo account
are efforts to clarify hoaxes on tips to avoid the transmission of the Covid-19 virus with
recommendations to consume concoctions or concoctions from ingredients that are not
necessarily tested for their efficacy. In addition, other fake news narratives that are spread are
conspiracies stating that the vaccination agenda is a political activity and so on. In addition,
several hoax narratives circulating also discussed false information regarding the receipt and
distribution of social assistance for those affected.

Figure 5. Keminfo's narrative on disinformation related to issues surrounding Covid-19 on

Twitter social media.

Based on the picture above, the data seems to show that the narrative related to the
keyword disinformation mostly refers to the discussion or discussion about the impact of
vaccination that can scare the public, such as disinformation about the impact of vaccination
which is considered to be lethal and the political aspect of the Swab-PCR before traveling and
PPKM (Restrictions On Community Activities). In addition to narratives about efforts to clarify
disinformation roaming any social media, @kemkominfo's tweet activity also reports efforts or
formal legal guidelines for handling the spread of disinformation on social media, especially
Twitter through Press Release No. 285/HM/KOMINFO/08/2021 concerning Clarification of
Hoax and Disinformation.
Figure 6. The use of the word "Palsu/False" related to issues surrounding Covid-19 by the
Ministry of Ministry of Communication and Informatics on Twitter social media.
Based on the picture above, it appears that some of the narratives are related to fake
keywords. This fake keyword refers to the number of narratives circulating and is not based on
information that is not authentic. From the data above, it can be seen that false information
related to Covid-19 and vaccinations is still circulating. One of the fake news and false
information that had shocked the public was the existence of the carelindungia.com site, which is
a fake site and is not a site used by the government to carry out the Covid-19 handling agenda. It
should be noted that the pedulilindungi.id site is an important site created by the government in
its efforts to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic, which means that there is some personal
information on the site that other parties do not have the right to know. Thus, if the fake site is
increasingly widespread, it will endanger the privacy of every individual who accesses it.

Figure 7. Example of Keminfo's post on twitter social Figure 8. Example of posting a news link
media about disinformation about swabs. by the Ministry of Information about
vaccine hoaxes on Twitter social media.
 Based on the picture above, the findings describe the efforts of the Ministry of
Communication and Informatics to clarify various hoaxes circulating in the community. The first
image shows the infographic presented by the @kemkominfo account which contains
information on circulating hoaxes and their clarifications. Then the second image was obtained
from tweet activity that included information on hoax clarification from the official website of
the Ministry of Communication and Informatics, or it can be said as a forwarded message from
the Ministry of Communications and Informatics website which was shared on Twitter social
media. The two examples above should provide high involvement or engagement from the
community or followers of the @kemkominfo Twitter account. However, unfortunately, the
findings show that the response or engagement of the two tweets above is still relatively low
when compared to the number of followers from the @kemkominfo account. The low
engagement from tweet activity shows how the strategy carried out by the Ministry of
Communication and Informatics is still not optimal.

Figure 9. The attention of the Ministry of Information regarding hoax and disinformation about
Covid-19 on Twitter social media.

Based on the picture above, it appears that the word "hoax" dominates the attention of
Kominfo, among other keywords. The keyword hoax is the main topic among other topics which
illustrates that hoaxes are still circulating and increasingly endanger the quality of public
knowledge, which can lead to hampering the goals of an important agenda in order to deal with
Covid-19. In addition to the topic of hoaxes, other topics that are also the most dominant topics
for discussion are vaccines, covid, and disinformation.

Discussion
The analysis of the first study is the trend of the number of publications or tweet activities
carried out by the @kemkominfo account in carrying out its role as the mainstream of
information media for the public. The results of the analysis from the previous discussion show
that the data displayed illustrates how the Twitter social media management belonging to the
Ministry of Communications and Informatics does not have a fixed pattern, in the sense that the
pattern is increasing or increasing. The trend of this pattern also illustrates how the management
of the @kemkominfo Twitter account does not have a regular increase target. The search results
also show that although the @kemkominfo account has many followers, the intensity of the
tweet activity that has been carried out has still not attracted many responses for the followers of
the @kemkominfo account.
The analysis of the second image reveals some of the hashtags that had the most
mentions. In this study, it is necessary to know what hashtags are related to posting tweets
related to hoaxes, Covid-19 and vaccinations. The search results show several related hashtags
among all the hashtags in Figure 2. Some of these hashtags are #SobatKom, #BersamaKominfo,
#KitaMakinTahu, #IndonesiaBangkit, #AllWajibPakaiMasker, #diRumahAja, #PulihBersama,
and #17anSerudiRumah. Of the total percentages generated, the total percentage of hashtag use
related to hoaxes, Covid-19, and vaccination is 67.15%. This number shows how the
management of the @kemkominfo account is quite intense in posting all information related to
hoaxes, Covid-19, and vaccinations.
The subsequent discussion is related to how trend relations between actors play a role in
handling various important information related to handling Covid-19. The first actor who has the
highest relationship is the actor with the username @platejohnny, who is the Minister of
Communication and Information. Most of the narratives used in interactions with the actor
@platejohnny are the use of the “mention” feature, where the @kemkominfo account mentions
the account name @platejohnny as a form of providing information regarding activities, agendas,
and statements made by Minister Johnny G. Plate. This step is also carried out by the interaction
between @kemkominfo and the actor who has the highest percentage of subsequent interactions,
namely the actor with the username @jokowi. The username @jokowi is the only official
account belonging to the President of Indonesia, namely President Joko Widodo.
The next analysis is a study of mapping the use of keywords and the narratives formed
from these keywords. The keywords that become the main topic in writing this research are
hoaxes, disinformation, and falsehood. The data graph above also illustrates how the official
account of Ministry of Communication and Informatics of Republic of Indonesia is one of the
caretakers as one of the main channels for the right to information disclosure and the termination
of hoax information channels related to Covid-19 information and the implementation of
vaccinations. The data capture above also illustrates how the Ministry of Communication and
Informatics is trying to clarify any false information, hoaxes, and other confusing news using
various methods, such as in the form of infographics, posters, to forwarded messages from the
official website of the Ministry of Communications and Informatics. As we know, the disclosure
of public information is very important and is the key to good governance.
The next discussion is a study of examples of posts that are part of the @kemkominfo
account activity on Twitter, as well as the primary media to stop the flow of hoaxes circulating
among the public. The form of tweet activity in clarifying the disinformation is divided into three
parts. Firstly, the origin of the information and an explanation related to the circulating
information. From the picture above and the search results show that the uploaded disinformation
news turned out to be from the upload of website articles that did not have credibility as the main
news source. Secondly, the evidence shows where the findings are disinformation that is widely
circulated among the public. Disinformation circulating comes from one of the social media with
the most users in Indonesia, namely Facebook. Third, there is the clarification of facts from the
party in charge at the scene. The @kemkominfo account confirmed the findings of the
disinformation to the Lampung Police Chief and the West Sumatra Police Head of Public
Relations as the parties responsible for monitoring the situation on the ground.
Finally, the keywords are the most mentioned keywords in @kemkominfo's tweet
activity, and keywords that are related to hoax and vaccination narratives in accordance with the
general theme of writing this research paper. Based on the picture above, it shows that the
keywords hoax, vaccine, covid, and disinformation have visualizations that show that some of
these keywords have quite a number of mentions. Not only that, several other keywords have
become the core topic of hoaxes circulating among the public, including the types of vaccines
which are often added with information that is not valid on the origin or source. Oftentimes, such
hoax information is easily disseminated among large family chat groups in the form of content in
the form of videos, photos, and long messages.

Conclusions
The role of government-owned social media has an important role as the main stream of
news in the community, especially social media belonging to the Ministry of Communication
and Informatics. The Ministry of Communication and Informatics, as part of the Indonesian
press, has an important role in reporting all information related to the Covid-19 pandemic among
Indonesian people. Not only in disseminating the latest information regarding the handling of the
pandemic, the Ministry of Communication and Informatics must also be able to become a
reference for the community in clarifying hoaxes and disinformation that is spread in the digital
space, one of which is social media Twitter. Based on the research findings using qualitative
descriptive methods and social media analysis, it shows that the Twitter account belonging to the
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is responsible for the circulation of
hoaxes, disinformation, and fake news related to Covid-19 and vaccinations among the public.
This form of responsibility is carried out by carrying out clarifying tweet activities. The high use
of social media Twitter among the public requires the government to be involved in efforts to
reduce hoaxes that are scattered on Twitter. Our findings also show that an important aspect that
needs to be explored and studied further is the number of engagements or responses obtained
from the @kemkominfo account for its tweet activity. This is considered important as an effort
to continue to develop the quality and quantity of posts in the future.

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