VETERAN MP Lim Kit Siang has demanded a public inquiry to investigate allegations that the police are tied to troll farms churning out disinformation and propaganda on the internet.

In a statement released today, the Iskandar Puteri lawmaker said the denial by secretary to the police Noorsiah Saaduddin that the law enforcers were not in any way involved is inadequate.

“I call for a public inquiry headed by a judge or former judge to investigate the serious allegation by Meta,” Lim said.

“We must make sure that the information age in Malaysia does not deteriorate into a disinformation age, where the police and the government – instead of cleaning up cyberspace of fake news, false allegations and all forms of disinformation – take part in the spread of disinformation.”

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, revealed in its quarterly adversarial threat report that it had removed from its social media platforms hundreds of accounts, pages, and groups linked to a troll farm in Malaysia.

Meta said its investigation had found a connection between the trolls and Malaysian police.

It said the accounts were concealed under inconspicuous names such as a public relations agency or internet research centre, etc, and the operations of troll factories are usually focused on the political or economic sphere.

Meta said its report provided insight into threats that the social media giant had tackled globally, including in Malaysia, Russia, Israel, Pakistan, India, South Africa, Greece, and the Philippines.

“We also removed three networks engaged in co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour (CIB) operations, including one network linked to a public relations firm in Israel, and two separate troll farms – one in Malaysia targeting domestic audiences and one in Russia targeting global discourse about the war in Ukraine,” the report said.

“In Malaysia, we removed 596 Facebook accounts, 180 pages, 11 groups and 72 Instagram accounts for violating our CIB policy. This network originated in Malaysia and targeted domestic audiences in that country.

“The individuals behind it ran a troll farm – a co-ordinated effort by co-located operators to corrupt or manipulate public discourse by using fake accounts and misleading people about who is behind them.

“They were active across the internet, including Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Instagram, and posted memes in Malay in support of the current government coalition, with claims of corruption among its critics,” the report said.

On Facebook, it said, this network managed pages, including those posing as independent news entities, and promoted police while criticising the opposition.

“We found this network after reviewing information about a small portion of this activity initially suspected to have originated in China by researchers at Clemson University. Although the people behind it attempted to conceal their identity and co-ordination, our investigation found links to the Royal Malaysian Police,” said the report.

The report said about 427,000 accounts followed one or more of these pages, while some 4,000 accounts followed one or more of these groups, and 15,000 accounts followed the Instagram accounts.

“Around US$6,000 (RM27,000) was spent on advertisements on Facebook and Instagram,” said the report. – August 8, 2022.