NGOs alarmed by inflammatory online posts amid political uncertainty
Yesterday, IGP Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani warned of stern action against those behind social media postings that touched on racial and religious sensitivities.
PETALING JAYA: Several NGOs have expressed concern over what it described as a disinformation campaign on social media to generate fear post-election amid the ongoing political uncertainty.
In a joint statement, the eight NGOs said there were anti-DAP efforts in particular since the election, noting that most of these inflammatory posts were on TikTok.
It added that some of these posts warned of a possible repeat of the May 13 race riots and involved images of various weapons.
“There is significant engagement on TikTok but these posts have also gone viral across platforms, namely Twitter,” said Wathshlah Naidu, executive director of the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ).
“There seems to be a well-coordinated and resourced trend of paid-partnership where young content creators are being used; and netizens being manipulated to viralise these contents.
“The contents using the May 13 incident are creating fear, polarising the already divided society along racial and religious lines, and at times inciting outright violence while leveraging the deepened social tensions.”
CIJ and its partners have reported these posts to the relevant social media platforms, and some of them have been removed.
Yesterday, inspector-general of police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani warned of stern action against those behind social media postings that touched on racial and religious sensitivities, including the use of the Sedition Act.
He said police had discovered such postings following Saturday’s general election.
PETALING JAYA: Several NGOs have expressed concern over what it described as a disinformation campaign on social media to generate fear post-election amid the ongoing political uncertainty.
In a joint statement, the eight NGOs said there were anti-DAP efforts in particular since the election, noting that most of these inflammatory posts were on TikTok.
It added that some of these posts warned of a possible repeat of the May 13 race riots and involved images of various weapons.
“There is significant engagement on TikTok but these posts have also gone viral across platforms, namely Twitter,” said Wathshlah Naidu, executive director of the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ).
“There seems to be a well-coordinated and resourced trend of paid-partnership where young content creators are being used; and netizens being manipulated to viralise these contents.
“The contents using the May 13 incident are creating fear, polarising the already divided society along racial and religious lines, and at times inciting outright violence while leveraging the deepened social tensions.”
CIJ and its partners have reported these posts to the relevant social media platforms, and some of them have been removed.
Yesterday, inspector-general of police Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani warned of stern action against those behind social media postings that touched on racial and religious sensitivities, including the use of the Sedition Act.
He said police had discovered such postings following Saturday’s general election.
No comments:
Post a Comment