Syndicate spreads hate online:
Indonesian authorities have uncovered a group spreading hate speech and fake news online, one of many that they fear could undermine national unity.
Indonesia has an ethnically diverse population of 250 million people, most of them Muslim but with significant minorities from other religions, and unity across the archipelago has been a priority of governments for generations.
Three people were arrested this week on suspicion of being part of a syndicate being paid to spread incendiary material online through social media, police said.
“If this is allowed to continue, it isn’t just about violating the law but also has the potential to damage the unity of this country,” said presidential spokesman Johan Budi.
Budi said it was up to investigators to determine the motive of those behind the campaign, adding police should investigate the issue “right down to its roots”.
National police spokesman Awi Setiyono said the material involved religious and ethnic issues and posts defamatory to government officials.
He declined to comment on the motive, saying investigators were still building their case and had yet to identify who was behind the syndicate, which calls itself Saracen, that has been spreading the material.
The police cyber crime unit said dozens of Facebook and other social media accounts were being sued to spread the material to an estimated 800,000 social media accounts.
Setiyono said investigators had uncovered money transfers of up to $5,000 to pay those spreading the material.
Religious and ethnic tensions flared in the capital, Jakarta, this year when city elections pitted an ethnic Chinese Christian governor, who was accused on insulting Islam, against a Muslim candidate.
Authorities under the leadership of President Joko Widodo have scrambled to remove hate speech from social media and
online forums in an attempt to defuse tension but a growing amount of content encouraging religious intolerance or radicalism is being shared.
Search giant Google said this month it was working with authorities to tackle content
deemed to be offensive. (RTRS)
US to install radar in Palau:
The United States has announced plans to install radar systems in Palau, a move that will increase its monitoring ability in the western Pacific
region recently rocked by threats from North Korea. In a joint statement, the US Defense Department and the Palau government said they were working to finalise the location of radar towers on the archipelago nation of 22,000 people.
“The radar systems will provide Palau enhanced maritime law enforcement capability ... while also providing the US with greater air domain awareness for aviation safety and security,” they said in the statement dated Aug 21. While Palau is an independent nation, it has no military and the US is responsible for its defence under an agreement with Washington.
Under the deal, the US military has access to the islands, although it currently has no troops stationed there.
Palau is about 1,300 kms (800 miles) south-west of Guam, the US Pacific territory that Pyongyang threatened to fire missiles towards earlier this month, sparking rhetoric of “fire and fury” from President Donald Trump.
The statement said the US proposed the radar installation on July 18, before the recent crisis with North Korea erupted.
“This project is essential to the well-being of the Republic of Palau’s air and maritime domains, as well as to the ability of the United States to maintain its defence of the Republic of Palau,” it said.
“The sites provided (for radar towers), which have yet to be finalised, have been chosen with an eye on minimising environmental impacts.” (AFP)