Be transparent over alleged fake FB, Instagram accounts link to cops, says DAP man
Although these accounts and pages have been identified and deleted by Meta, DAP Social Media Bureau Chairman Syahredzan Johan says the report may show governments fund trolls and cyber troopers using public funds and resources for their political interests. Photo source: Facebook
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Syahredzan, the DAP Social Media Bureau Chairman said if the report was true, it would reveal a concerted effort to manipulate public discussions using fake accounts and sites to benefit the government.
“Although these accounts and pages have been identified and deleted by Meta, this report shows that governments fund trolls and cyber troopers using public funds and resources for their political interests,” he said in a statement.
“It is not an exaggeration to conclude that apart from these accounts and pages, there are other accounts and pages, across various social media platforms, which carry out similar activities," he said.
He urged the government to be transparent and provide a detailed explanation over Meta report.
“According to Meta, the troll farm is active on Facebook, TikTok, Twitter and Instagram and uploads memes in Malay, criticising the opposition and accusing those who criticise the government of corruption.
Malay Mail reported that Meta said it had identified and removed over 600 accounts across all of its social network platforms for violating the policy against "coordinated inauthentic behaviour," with the majority of them alleged to be part of a "troll farm" to corrupt or manipulate public discourse using fake accounts.
Malay Mail further reported that the bogus pages and accounts were said to have some 427,000 followers, while 4,000 accounts joined one or more of these groups and about 15,000 accounts followed one or more of these Instagram accounts.
Many of these accounts were also said to have spent up to US$6,000 (about RM26,739) for ads on Facebook and Instagram, paid for primarily in ringgit.
“Typically, their posting activity accelerated during weekdays, taking breaks for lunch. Their fake accounts were fairly under-developed and some of them used stolen profile pictures.
“Some of them were detected and disabled by our automated systems,” the company said in the report.
Sinar Daily is contacting the police for comments over the matter.
