CYBERJAYA, Apr 19 – The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is investigating more than 50% of 1,500 fake news that have been verified via the sebenarnya.my portal. Its chief operating officer Datuk Dr Mazlan Ismail said so far 40 individuals have been charged and most of them were Malaysians living in the country.

“Of the 40 individuals, only 10 have been convicted after a lengthy court process,” he told reporters when met at the launch of the Malaysia ICT Volunteer (MIV) at the Multimedia University (MMU), here today. According to Mazlan, MCMC did not rule out the possibility that there were “factories” creating false news in the country following the commission’s observation on the trend of the news attacks.

“Most of the news attack on government agencies which are related to Islam, the Malays and government-linked companies (GLCs). It is as if there is a mastermind behind them,” he said. However Mazlan said, MCMC faced difficulties in detecting the first party to spread the false news as some 30% of the cases were using fake social media accounts.

“Some of the accounts would immediately close once the news (fake news) have been viraled, just like a guerilla warfare. When we check with platforms like Facebook and so forth, the account is no longer there,” he said. When asked on the enforcement of the Anti-Fake News Act 2018 (Act 803), Mazlan said for now, prosecution cannot be instituted.

“There is a lot more to be done including inter-agency coordination in terms of standard operating procedures (SOPs) and so on, only then we can enforce it,” he added. According to Mazlan currently prosecution was still being implemented under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998. — Bernama

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