The Conversation Indonesia has published the findings of our study that focuses on the ability of Generation Z in Indonesia to detect fake news and their behavior in response the widely spread fake news.

In the article, The Conversation Indonesia highlights the finding that Gen Z in Indonesia can identify which sources of information are credible, but the majority of Gen Z still have difficulty in detecting fake news spreading on social media. This is considered as worrying since the Gen Z is frequently praised for being a “melek digital – digital literate” generation.

The findings are in line with a study from Stanford University which found that while Gen Z are ‘digital natives’, they can also be ‘digital naive’. That study found that 82% of Gen Z couldn’t even tell the difference between news and advertisements.

The inability of Gen Z to detect fake news could be due to their lack of digital literacy skills. In other words, young individuals with high levels of digital literacy are good at spotting fake news, yet unwilling to check it out further. Therefore, in order to strengthening digital literacy education, we also need to boost the participation of the younger generation so that they are eager to share the correct information or defend the false information. All parties involved must keep coming up with innovative plans to design new strategies and strengthen community and youth resilience in reducing misinformation.