Fake news has had drastic effects on Indonesian civilians, causing crises and panic over the past decade. Ismail Fahmi, founder of the social media analysis system based on big data, was instrumental in the 2014 crackdown on fake news following the presidential elections. When an issue dominates social media, such as riots against racial discrimination in West Papua, Fahmi is the first expert news outlets turn to for comments.
Waves of hoaxes taking over Indonesia in the past year has led to the worst polarisation in Indonesia since its independence in 1945. Fahmi finished his social media scanning software while he was completing his Ph.D. in computational linguistics, later developing the technology to be applicable to all social media platforms.
Read More: In Indonesia, Fake News is Ubiquitous. So He Created A Software To Track Down Their Origins