THERE are no troll farms linked to Malaysian law enforcers as alleged by Meta, police secretary Noorsiah Saaduddin said today.

“We view the allegation by Meta that there are troll farms linked to PDRM seriously,” she said, referring to the police by its Malay acronym.

“PDRM, however, denies the allegations and are collecting further information.”

A troll farm or factory is an entity conducting disinformation propaganda activities on the internet. This activity is often concealed under an inconspicuous name such as a public relations agency or
internet research centre, etc. The operations of troll factories are usually focused on the political or economic sphere.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, revealed yesterday 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.

Meta said its report provides 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 coordinated 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 policy against CIB. This network originated in Malaysia and targeted domestic audiences in that country.

“The individuals behind it ran a troll farm – a coordinated 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,” said the report.

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 coordination, 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 6, 2022.