KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — A total of 3,285 complaints regarding content deemed to be fake news between 2020 and May 31, 2022 were received by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
Its chief regulatory officer Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin said there was a spike in fake news complaints in March 2020 related to COVID-19 but the trend had declined heading into 2021.
“The common types of fake news revolve around impersonation or damaging reputation.
“The public tend to generalise it but in legal terms some of this fake news can be categorised as defamation of someone in nature,” he said on Bernama TV’s ‘The Brief: The Current State of Fake News’ programme here today.
Zulkarnain said fake news also includes impersonation utilising prominent individuals in the political, business or banking sector as endorsements for a particular investment venture or to be used as an investment recommendation to well-known individuals.
He said society needs to understand that the content conveyed in fake news may be in the form of pictures and it could be categorised as an incident, defamation or impersonation.
Zulkarnain said MCMC uses Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 to procecute any parties involved in the provision of false and menacing content.
He said not all significant complaints on fake news would lead to prosecution as the authorities faced many challenges in combating the menace.
“(Tackling) fake news is not merely charging the accused under the law but also taking administrative actions to the platform and hosting providers for the removal of the content or the fake news,” he said.
