JAKARTA: 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 cybercrime 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 of insulting Islam, against a Muslim candidate.
Authorities 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.
Indonesians uncover syndicate spreading hate speech online — police
Indonesians uncover syndicate spreading hate speech online — police
Eurovision Sport, Camb.ai to provide live subtitling for Paralympic Winter Games
- Partnership aims to increase accessibility for all audiences
- Milano Cortina Games run from Friday to March 15
LONDON: Eurovision Sport, the European Broadcasting Union’s free-to-air streaming platform, will provide live and on-demand subtitling for coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games in partnership with AI language company Camb.ai
The service will run across all competition days, allowing viewers to stream all six Paralympic Winter Games sports on Eurovision Sport with real-time subtitles. The Games open on Friday and run through March 15.
Camb.ai will supply contextual speech-to-text transcription for both live and catch-up coverage, which the organizers said would support accessibility without altering the editorial integrity of broadcasts.
Eurovision Sport Managing Director Alan Fagan said the aim was to make the Games available to “the widest possible audience,” by scaling up digital accessibility across every event on the platform.
The initiative forms part of the EBU’s most extensive digital coverage of a Paralympic Winter Games to date and complements member broadcasters’ linear output.
It also reflects a wider industry push to make live sport easier to follow for viewers watching without sound, people with hearing impairments and audiences consuming content on demand.
Camb.ai’s Chief Technology Officer Akshat Prakash said the company was proud to deepen its partnership with Eurovision Sport, describing the platform as a leader in applying new technology to sports coverage.
The two organizations began working together in 2024, when they delivered what they described as Europe’s first AI-powered real-time translated sports commentary during European Athletics events.
