Action taken against 4,358 fake social media accounts since January 2017

THE Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission ( MCMC) has taken action against 4,358 fake accounts from January last year until February this year, the Dewan Negara was told yesterday.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak said 80 per cent of these fake accounts had been deleted by social media platform providers such as Facebook and Twitter for violating the terms and conditions set by their respective service providers.

He said MCMC had also blocked 40 websites, portals and blogs that disseminated fake news and information.

“Since January 2017 until February 2018, a total of 45 investigation papers were opened by MCMC for these cases involving the spread of fake news on various social media platforms with four cases being brought to court,” he said.

He was replying to a question from Senator Datuk Seri Khairudin Samad during the question-and-answer session at the Dewan Negara sitting concerning the government’s plan to tackle issues related to the spread of fake news and information that was currently widespread.

Salleh said based on the analysis conducted by MCMC, the majority of Malaysians received unreliable or fake news from the WhatsApp application which accounted for 84 per cent, followed by Facebook ( eight per cent), blogs ( four per cent) and others (four per cent).

He said the ministry through MCMC would continue to strengthen efforts on enforcement, investigations and prosecution of any misconduct on thr social media and internet generally via the Special Committee on Cyber Crime, comprising various ministries and agencies. — Bernama