Two Indonesian women who allegedly posted misinformation online about the deadly coronavirus have been arrested, police said, as they warned dozens of hoaxes were being rapidly shared by the country's millions of internet users.
The pair were taken into custody in Balikpapan, a city on Borneo island, in the past few days after separately posting rumours on their social media accounts that a local resident was infected and undergoing treatment.
Indonesia has yet to report a confirmed case of the virus, which emerged in a Chinese market at the end of last year and has since killed at least 425 people in China and spread around the world.
"They posted a hoax on their Facebook account that a Balikpapan resident has been diagnosed with coronavirus," local police spokesman Ade Yaya Suryana told AFP Tuesday.
"They were spreading lies."