Putrajaya (Malaysia) (AFP)

Malaysian authorities have launched investigations against 27 people suspected of having participated in online misinformation about the new coronavirus, they said Thursday as several countries are stepping up efforts to control communication around the epidemic.

Of the 27 people, four have already been charged and four more are expected to be charged on Friday, officials from the Ministry of Communication and the Prime Minister's Office told AFP, but did not disclose what type of false information they had disseminated. .

"If you are involved in an act of dissemination of lies (...) we will seek you, no matter who you are," warned Mohamed Hanipa Maidin, a senior official in the Prime Minister’s office to journalists, announcing a strengthening repression against disinformation.

The new coronavirus has killed 2,200 people and infected more than 75,000 people, mainly in China. It has spread to dozens of countries, including Malaysia, which has confirmed 22 cases of contamination.

This epidemic has sparked a wave of misinformation playing on the fears of the public, for example advancing a number of victims much higher than the official figures, or reporting conspiracies on vaccines.

Several Asian countries have made arrests for disinformation while Singaporean authorities have ordered Facebook to block the page of a political site critical of the government, which they accuse of spreading false information about the disease.

In early February, a Malaysian journalist was charged with messages on social networks deemed likely to panic the public, in particular by expressing her concerns about the arrival of Chinese tourists on a cruise ship.

The authorities believe that the misinformation could create serious inter-community unrest in a predominantly Muslim country but with a large minority of Chinese origin.

But some observers fear that these measures will undermine citizens' freedoms.

"The line is very thin between a government that takes measures to prevent misinformation and a government that muzzles freedom of expression," said Asrul Hadi Abdullah Sani, political analyst for the consulting firm BowerGroupAsia, when asked by the AFP.

© 2020 AFP