Study Finds Malaysia Used Bots To Spread 'Fake News' In Order To Mislead Voters

The study, titled 'Global Disinformation Order: 2019 Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation', was conducted by the Oxford Internet Institute and published on 26 September.

The study analysed cybertroop activities between 2010 to 2019 in 70 countries.

It stated that Malaysia has a "medium-capacity" cybertrooper team to mislead citizens on political issues.

Citing the study, The Star reported that Malaysia is estimated to have about 50 to 2,000 cybertroopers who undertook formal training to:  

- Promote pro-government or pro-party propaganda messages,
- Attack the opposition in smear campaigns, and
- Suppress participation through personal attacks or harassment.

According to the study, these cybertroopers are full-time staff who are hired year-round to control the information space.

The study explained that bots are highly automated accounts designed to mimic human behaviour online.

"They are often used to amplify narratives or drown out political dissent," researchers wrote.

50 out of the 70 countries studied use bots, but more countries use human-run accounts to spread fake news - something which Malaysia is not part of.

Digital information manipulations in Malaysia are said to be committed by government agencies, politicians and political parties, private contractors, civil society organisations, as well as citizens and influencers.

The study discounted the usage of online trolls or mass-reporting approach in Malaysia.

The study found that organised social media manipulation is increasing year-on-year, from 28 countries in 2017 to 48 countries in 2018, and now 70 countries in 2019.

Facebook remained the largest platform responsible for the distribution of fake news, followed by Twitter.

While Singapore was not found in the study, the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar, and Vietnam were found to be guilty of organised social media manipulation.

The Washington Post highlighted that Malaysia uses fake news as weapons on multi-religion issues.

Lim claimed that Barisan Nasional (BN) had in the past hired cybertroopers with a pay up to RM3,000 monthly, and gave them free telephone gadgets and laptops.

"Just before the 14th General Election, the UMNO Information Technology Bureau organised a convention for some 3,500 UMNO cybertroopers," the Iskandar Puteri MP wrote on his blog.