Fake News on Jokowi's Diploma Forgery Allegations Spreads in Indonesia

A fake news article claiming that Coordinating Minister Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan asked Solo citizens not to expel President Joko Widodo if his diploma was forged is circulating in Indonesia. This misinformation has been spreading on social media since early July, and Liputan6.com's fact-checking team has verified its authenticity. The fake news includes a screenshot of an article from Tempo with the headline, "Luhut hopes Solo residents will not expel Jokowi if his diploma is forged." The poster added that this news is related to the alleged forgery of Jokowi's diploma and that Luhut had hoped Solo residents would not expel the president even if the allegations were true. However, Liputan6.com's fact-checking team searched Tempo's website but found no such article. Bagja Hidayat, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Tempo, denied that the article was from Tempo, stating that its design and typography were not characteristic of Tempo's products and that Tempo would not publish an article with such a messy headline. Furthermore, the photo in the post was identified as a screenshot from a video uploaded to YouTube by Kompas TV on June 12, 2025, titled "BREAKING NEWS - Luhut Discusses Indonesia's Economic Prospects at ICI 2025." Based on these findings, Liputan6.com's fact-checking team concluded that the article claiming Luhut asked Solo residents not to expel Jokowi due to diploma forgery allegations is hoaks (fake news). The media outlet stated that fighting misinformation is equivalent to fighting ignorance and that they have been working to improve media literacy since 2018. Source: Liputan6