KUALA LUMPUR – Police denial on their links to a troll farm mentioned in Meta’s revelatory report is “weak and unconvincing”, said DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang as he calls for a public inquiry into the allegations.
“I call for a public inquiry headed by a judge or former judge to investigate the serious allegations by Meta. The police denial… is weak and unconvincing,” he said in a statement today.
He added that in the event of an inquiry, Meta should be invited to disclose evidence that was used to conclude that police are running a troll farm to manipulate public discourse.
“We must make sure that the information age in Malaysia does not deteriorate into a disinformation age – where police and the government instead of cleaning up the cyberspace of fake news, allegations and disinformation – take part in the spread of disinformation.
“It would be a serious abuse and misuse of trust of the people if a government or a government department is involved in a disinformation campaign.”
Last week, police secretary Datuk Noorsiah Mohd Saaduddin issued a statement to deny allegations of police being the mastermind of a troll farm that sought to promote the current government coalition and criticise its opponents.
She added that police are gathering more information on the matter and will take Meta’s report seriously.
Meta, in its Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report, claimed that close to 1,000 Facebook and Instagram accounts, as well as Facebook groups and pages, were removed for violating the platform’s policy against coordinated inauthentic behaviour.
According to the report, this network was made up of at least 596 Facebook accounts, 180 Facebook pages, 11 Facebook groups, and 72 Instagram accounts, with a cumulative total of almost half a million followers.
Additionally, the network was active across Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, and Instagram and “posted memes in Malay in support of the current government coalition, with claims of corruption among its critics”.
On Facebook, in particular, the network managed pages that posed as independent news entities and “promoted police while criticising the opposition”.
The report also found that approximately US$6,000 (RM26,739) was spent on advertising on Facebook and Instagram. – The Vibes, August 8, 2022
