INSPECTOR-General of Police (IGP) Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani must not allow the police force to be used as a political tool to mastermind a troll farm, said DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng.

The former finance minister was responding to the recent findings from Meta, which 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 and had found a connection between the trolls and Malaysian police.

“The IGP Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani should not discredit himself the way Attorney-General Idrus Harun and MACC (Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission) chief commissioner Azam Baki have done by failing to perform his statutory duty independently and professionally.

“Both Idrus and Azam have been reduced political puppets who withhold action against government MPs and opposition MPs who defect to support the current government, or deign to take action on huge public scandals only when ordered by the prime minister, such as the RM6 billion payment for six littoral combat ships, where not a single ship has been delivered,” he said in a statement today.

Lim said after PDRM had issued a rebuttal that it had no connections with the troll farm, no response to the progress or outcome of information gathering by the police was made public.

“The IGP should uphold and perform PDRM’s statutory duty to the nation as stated in Section 3(3) of the Police Act 1967, and not be beholden to ruling politicians of the current government,” he said, referring to the police force by its Malay acronym.

“To defend the credibility and integrity of the police, the IGP should expedite investigations and make public the outcome of Meta’s grave and serious claims of PDRM running a troll farm that manufactures fake accounts to support the current government and discredit government critics with false corruption claims,” Lim stressed.

Meta said it had identified and removed the network of over 600 fake accounts posting memes in Malay linked to PDRM that support the current government coalition and attempt to paint its critics as corrupt, in addition to promoting the police.

According to Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, these accounts had managed to amass over 427,000 followers on one or more Facebook pages, with 4,000 more joining such Facebook groups, and 15,000 becoming followers for some of these fake Instagram accounts. Meta reported that these accounts belonging to the troll farm had spent around US$6,000 (RM26,730) for advertising on both Facebook and Instagram, with most of it paid for primarily in ringgit.

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

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

“PDRM, however, denies the allegations and is 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.

The operations of troll factories are usually focused on the political or economic sphere. – AFP, August 15, 2022.