Two days ago, I had forecast that the Tanjong Piai parliamentary by-election will be the WhatsApp by-election in Malaysia, and this forecast has been vindicated since the Tanjong Piai by-election nomination yesterday.

This morning, the voters of Tanjong Piai by-election was bombarded by an overload of lies, fake news and hate speech, and it is clear that the industrious, creative and highly-funded “influencers” who are responsible for producing the overload of lies, fake news and hate speech on the social media in the past 24 hours had been working overtime going by the volume of their products since nomination.

Among the lies, fake news and hate speech that are being disseminated in the by-election is the allegation that it had been 18 months since Pakatan Harapan became the government but Pakatan Harapan has failed to fulfill any of its promises in its Manifesto.

If such an allegation, which could be easily shot down as untrue could be spread in the Tanjong Piai by-election, it should not be difficult to imagine the monstrous lies, fake news and hate speech which could be disseminated in the by-election.
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