UMNO has called for an investigation into an alleged election-manipulation operation targeting Malaysian voters, after US AI company Anthropic said it had disrupted a network of about 1,000 fake X accounts and other tools designed to influence political discourse.
UMNO information chief Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said authorities should establish who was behind the operation, who financed it and what interests were involved.
Anthropic said in a threat intelligence report published on Thursday that an account using its Claude AI models had been linked to a commercial election-manipulation platform targeting Malaysia.
The company said the operation used about 1,000 fake X accounts, a fabricated news site and voter-profiling tools covering all 222 parliamentary constituencies.
Anthropic said it had identified and removed the account involved. It also linked the platform to Istanbul-based technology company BBS Bilisim Teknolojileri, which it said marketed the system as a paid “influence-as-a-service” capability.
Although there was no evidence that the operation had changed an election result or voters’ political positions, Azalina said the allegations warranted serious attention.
Azalina said enforcement must be applied equally regardless of political affiliation.
“If government supporters break the law, take action. If opposition supporters break the law, take action.
“The law cannot have one measure for friends and another measure for opponents,” she said in a statement today.
She also warned Malaysians against treating high numbers of comments, likes or shares on social media as evidence of majority public opinion.
“Technology can produce a thousand accounts and a thousand comments. But technology cannot determine the truth or what people actually feel on the ground,” she said.
Azalina said Malaysians should be more cautious about content presented as news, as fabricated pages could resemble legitimate news portals and mix factual material with misleading or out-of-context claims.
“People also need to be more careful with what they see on social media. Today, anyone can create a Facebook page that looks like a news portal or information website.
“Real news can be mixed with half-truths, misleading headlines or facts taken out of context, eventually creating a false perception,” she said.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it was reviewing Anthropic’s report and would seek further information and clarification from relevant parties. It also stressed that activities of the kind described by Anthropic were not part of its functions or mandate and that it did not engage in them.
Azalina also said UMNO had faced sustained attacks on its public image, including repeated allegations portraying the party as evil, corrupt or untrustworthy.
“At the same time, UMNO is not saying that all criticism of the party is false or comes from bots.
“People have the right to criticise UMNO, the government or any leader. Fact-based criticism must be respected,” she said.
Azalina said Malaysia’s democracy must be protected from manipulation and foreign interference. - September 12, 2026
