Don’t be victims of weaponised information — Jailani

KUALA LUMPUR: Internet users should be more careful about sharing personal data online to avoid from becoming victims of weaponised information, said Communications and Multimedia Deputy Minister, Datuk Seri Jailani Johari.

He said although personal data leaks could occur in any country, this could be checked through selfcontrol.

“We have a certain Act but the most important thing is selfcensorship where as users, we must not easily share whatever personal data on the social media...don’t make the social media a medium for weaponising information.

“As data Internet users or data subjects, we should change our password at least every two to three months, and don’t share links we feel are unsuitable as doing so will have an impact on us,” he said in reply to a supplementary question from Datuk Raimei Unggi (BN-Tenom) in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

Jailani said his ministry also carried out several measures and collaborated with various agencies to curb the spread of fake news and content.

He said these included creating the SEBENARNYA.MY portal to channel authentic news and information to the public, which had been surfed by 12.75 million netizens since it was launched in March, this year.

Earlier, to the original question from Raime, Jailani said a 2017 study on Internet users showed the number of users in Malaysia had risen from 24.1 million in 2015 to 24.5 million in 2016.

He said 89.3 per cent of the Internet users in 2016 were also found to be using the social media, an increase of 9.3 per cent from the figure in 2015.

He noted that the number of Facebook account holders rose by 18.6 per cent in 2015 to 21.3 per cent in 2016, Instagram users by 9 per cent in 2015 to 12.3 per cent in 2016, and YouTube users by 8.1 per cent in 2015 to 9.9 per cent in 2016. - Bernama