‘FOCUS ON SOCIAL MEDIA’
BN, Umno now more ready to face online attacks, says Zahid
UMNO and Barisan Nasional members should focus on engaging firsttime voters active on social media to win the 14th General Election (GE14).
Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, who is also Umno vice-president, said 92 per cent of Malaysians active on social media were aged between 18 and 29.
Recalling how Umno and BN were weakened in the last election for not addressing social media attacks, Zahid said this time around, the coalition would be more ready to face the challenge.
“The increasing use of social media has turned fake news into a tsunami. This is how we lost the online war in GE13.
“The opposition sent cybertroopers overseas, to Taiwan, to attack us. We went babau (mute).
“Voters make decisions. In the court of public opinion, we were judged as wrong... because of defamation that was repeated and went viral, and with the same old storylines.”
He said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission handled 4,702 cases of fake news up to September.
Launching the Umno state-level social media convention here by the party’s information technology bureau, Zahid reminded cybertroopers about their important role as BN’s and Umno’s soldiers in the virtual world.
Speaking to 1,300 Umno representatives, he said Malaysians were the third-highest users of social media in Asean, spending 3.5 hours on Facebook per person every day.
“Our IT bureau will not be babau this time... We will be ready for surprise last-minute attacks like those before GE13.
“We need to educate people to say ‘no’ to fake news and half truths.
“Our weapon now is social media. We must not let freedom of expression be misused, where defaming someone is the norm, or embarrassing or angering someone is fun. This is not our culture.”
He reminded Umno members not to fight among themselves as it would result only in failure.
“Like the seladang (or gaur, a cattle species) that likes to fight each another, when their horns break from fighting and tigers move in on them, both seladang will lose and die.”