On February 28, 2018, the Coconuts Jakarta news website reported that police had arrested a lecturer from the Islamic University of Indonesia for sharing on Facebook a false news item about the recent murder of a muezzin (a person who makes the Islamic call to prayer from the minaret of a mosque) that was then shared around 7,000 times.
The Jakarta police said that evidence found on the lecturer's electronics showed that she was also a member of the Muslim Cyber Army (MCA) group. She will be charged under the Law on Electronic Transactions and Information for spreading information online that could cause hatred toward certain people or social groups, as well as two other laws concerning hate speech and the spread of misinformation. She could face up to six years in prison if convicted.
This arrest comes after the arrest of four people belonging to the WhatsApp group The Family MCA, on February 25, who were also charged with, among other things, spreading false news to incite hatred. Source: Coconuts.co/Jakarta, February 28, 2018.
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