Indonesian ministry partners with local acts in push for digital literacy among Gen Zs

Indonesia's ministry of communications and informatics (MCI) has partnered up with local artists LALEILMANINO and JKT48 to launch its latest digital literacy campaign #BeraniBersuara (Dare to Speak Up). The campaign comes as part of the national digital literacy movement Siberkreasi and aims to educate young people in Indonesia, especially Gen Z,  to be wiser in using social media, "so as to create a positive, ethical, and safe digital creative space".

As part of the campaign, LALEILMANINO composed a song titled Berani Bersuara <3<3, which was performed by teen idol group JKT48. According to a statement by the MCI, the lyrics of the song aims to build a sense of togetherness and connect with Gen Z. The launch of the song will be followed by the campaign "Duet Bareng JKT48", where Gen Z are urged to sing along to the track and post a video of themselves doing so on social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok. 

Rizki Amelia, coordinator of digital literacy at the MCI, said that it hopes the campaign will not only educate and inspire Indonesian Gen Z to create interesting content, but also help them understand the importance of playing social media wisely and ethically, as well as keeping away from hoaxes, fraud and cyberbullying. 

Meanwhile, Nino from LALEILMANINO said that he believes music is a very great medium to remind people of the positive values that are often forgotten. "With an arrangement that is quite upbeat and cheerful, we hope listeners will understand the serious message we are trying to convey, if packaged in entertaining lyrics. The title with <3<3 emoticons is a wordplay of hati-hati, which can mean 'double hearts' or 'to be careful' in Bahasa. It sounds playful but the meaning is deep," he explained. 

The campaign also comes in light of results from studies such as the Digital Civility Index 2020 which showed that, despite being very active on social media, Indonesian netizens were ranked as having the worst attitude in the digital world, compared to their APAC counterparts. Suspected reasons for this include the massive spread of hoaxes, fraud and hatred that are easily found and shared digitally among the Indonesian people.

Separately, Gojek launched a campaign aimed at enhancing safety standards and user protection in Indonesia in March 2020. Titled “Safe with Gojek” (#AmanBersamaGojek), the campaign was underpinned by three pillars - education, technology, and protection. Amongst its education initiatives, Gojek partnered with Indonesia’s Ministry of Communication and Information Technology and the University of Gadjah Mada to enhance digital literacy in Indonesia and arm consumers with knowledge on protecting themselves against cyber and other security threats.   

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