Tech gurus say social media will be integral part of GE15


Angie Tan

Tech gurus say since most young voters don't use Facebook, political parties may choose to disseminate their campaign materials on Instagram. – EPA pic, November 2, 2022.

WITH the majority of voters – 954,825 of 1.94 million – being in the tech-savvy, 18 to 39 age group, social media is again expected to play a key role in the upcoming general election (GE), tech gurus said.

Teck Choon Serm, co-founder of Antsomi, a start-up focusing on artificial intelligence-driven marketing technology, told The Malaysian Insight that the 2018 GE gave Malaysians a glimpse of the role social media plays in the election process.

Teck was pointing to Facebook, which some political parties used to livestream “ceramah”, meet-and-greet sessions, polling, and even election results on top of numerous news reports.

Teck says Facebook users will play an important role in the 2018 GE because: “There are more than 20 million people in Malaysia who have an account on Facebook and the number is increasing.

“Technology now makes it easier for voters to know what the candidates and their parties stand for and what their policies are.

“So it will all boil down to how effective the candidates are in using social media to canvas votes.”

But Teck said Facebook’s dominant role could be cut back as young and first-time voters aged 18 to 29 do not use the social media platform.

Teck, who has more than 20 years of experience in the digital industry, said Instagram, which focuses on sharing lifestyle content, is the platform of choice for these young voters.

He said political parties will undoubtedly use Instagram to reach these voters, whose political leanings are very much unknown.

Teck said one platform that could be as popular this GE as Facebook was in 2018 is TikTok.

“TikTok use in the last few years has, in Southeast Asia and in Malaysia, has grown exponentially.”

He said the video-sharing platform, which hosts clips from myriad genres including pranks, stunts, tricks, jokes, dances, and entertainment, is very popular among Chinese people.

“I think it will be interesting to see the role TikTok could play in conveying election messages to young voters in GE15.”

Experts are mixed on whether TikTok would be an effective tool to reach young voters, seeing the platform hosts mostly short-form content that one expert says could be too basic to fully express manifestos and election promises. – AFP pic, November 2, 2022.

With fresh warnings of new spikes in Covid-19 cases, Teck said social media would therefore still be key for politicians and parties to get their messages through to those staying away from gatherings because of the risk of infection.

Fake news

Mass communications expert Wong Kock Hoo disagreed with Teck on TikTok as a campaigning tool.

Wong said TikTok is “not easy to use”.

“TikTok is best used for building an image. It’s not for conveying serious issues like party policies or stands on key issues or manifestos,” Wong said.

“To convey an image, that could be done in a short time, which TikTok is famous for. But for the more serious matters, voters want time to digest and understand what the candidates stand for.

“They are unlikely to cast their vote by relying merely on the portrayal of an image.”

Wong however warned that the popularity of social media makes it a target for people to post fake news and run people down in disinformation campaigns.

Tackling that should be a priority in this year’s election, he added. 

“The nature of the internet is that there is nowhere for people to check (verify) anything that is posted.”

Wong said studies have shown that rumours and unverified news spread much faster than the truth.

“So what can be expected in the run-up to polling day is that there will be a lot of fake news, and for the voters, it’s hard for them to verify the mountains of postings they might come across.”

His advice is simple: “If they are apprehensive and uncertain of the source of information, they should go to a reputable news media website to double-check.

“With campaigning in just a few days’ time, there’s definitely going to be many more dubious postings, so voters need to be more cautious with what they are reading.”

Nomination for the GE takes place on Saturday, with polling day on November 19. – November 2, 2022.


Sign up or sign in here to comment.


Comments