Malaysians must given serious attention to the latest Oxford Internet Institute (OII) Report on “The Global Disinformation Order : 2019 Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulaiton” as its give a timely warning of the national risks if fake news and hate speech to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation in Malaysia are allowed untrammeled licence.

Fake news and hate speech are evil influences by themselves, but when coupled with the agenda to incite inter-racial and inter-religious polarisation in plural Malaysia, they become exceedingly toxic and destructive which must be checked if the fabric of Malaysian society is not to be torn asunder.

The latest OII report finds that organised social media manipulation has more than doubled since 2017, with 70 countries using “computational propaganda” to manipulate public opinion.

Facebook is the platform of choice and is used in formally organised campaigns taking place in 56 countries.

The report states that such tools are used in 45 democracies, by politicians and political parties, to amass fake followers or spread manipulated media to garner voter support. Read the rest of this entry »