Duo held for posting false news
Police not amused after clerk’s post on ‘students fighting’ goes viral and creates fear
Police not amused after clerk’s post on ‘students fighting’ goes viral and creates fear.
SIBU: A government agency clerk saw a group of students loitering in front of a school in SibuJaya.
He assumed they were up to no good, so he quickly took some pictures and uploaded it onto his Facebook on Friday, claiming that they were going to fight and commit violence.
His sister-in-law copied the posting and, without checking the facts, put it on her WeChat that night and sent it to a friend.
The posting created fear among folks in SibuJaya and the police were not amused.
They were unhappy that despite wide media coverage of social media users being arrested for disseminating false news, some of them are still at it.
“The clerk and his sister-in-law have been detained for false posting,” said state CID chief SAC Datuk Dev Kumar in a press statement.
They were arrested yesterday morning. “On Feb 24, police were notified of the posting, warning that a group of student thugs from SMK SibuJaya were assembling illegally at Town Villa, SibuJaya, with the intention to fight and commit violence.
“The posting added that the situation was creating a public nuisance to residents of an apartment block in the area,” he said.
The Facebook posting, which appeared at about 11pm Friday, also carried several photos showing civilians and students in school uniform.
SAC Dev said the photos turned out to be parents sending their children to school.
A team from CID Sibu said because of the posting, police dispatched a team to the area yesterday.
“The Facebook account holder later posted another status accompanied by three photos, thanking the police for resolving ‘the matter’. “No such thing ever happened.
“We are not amused by this false news. A police report was subsequently lodged against the false posting,” he said.
At noon yesterday, a team from CID Sibu arrested the 20-year-old unemployed woman and her 45-year-old brother-in-law, a clerk with a government agency.
“The woman said that she saw the posting on her brother-in-law’s Facebook. She copied and pasted it onto her WeChat without verifying it.
“The brother-in-law gave the excuse that he saw a group of students in front of the school and assumed they were going to fight,” said SAC Dev.
The case is being investigated under sections 500 of the Penal Code and 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.