Fake accounts linked to Malaysian police spotted on social media
Meta suspects the Malaysian police of running a troll factory.
REUTERS - DADO RUVIC
Text by: Gabrielle Maréchaux Follow
3 mins
In Malaysia, Meta, the company behind Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, has announced that it has found the biggest troll factory, that is, a
cluster
of fake accounts coordinated for manipulation purposes.
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From our correspondent in Malaysia
,
The announcement of Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram does not surprise Malaysians so much.
They even have a name for the people who act together to influence online opinion behind many fake accounts.
They are called "
cyber troopers
", and some politicians use them extensively, such as the former Prime Minister, Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah, both embroiled in a gigantic corruption affair.
In court, assistant Rosmah revealed in 2020 that more than $24,000 had been spent to hire an army of "
cyber troopers
" who were supposed to defend her online.
Even more surprisingly, some “
cyber troopers
” have even become public figures here, such as a woman named Syarul Ema, known as “the Mother of Dragons”.
As early as 2013, this Malaysian was leading 80 "
cyber troopers
" who piloted thousands of false profiles precisely defending the policies of Najib's government, the "Mother" of these "dragons" never went to prison for this, but she has since changed her tune by finally joining the opposition, where she was even the head of information for the women's branch.
Malaysian police involved
The other two countries where troll factories have been identified by Facebook, Israel and
Russia
, were aimed at international audiences.
In this quarterly report from Facebook, it is the size of the audience of its troll factory that surprises, but also its local target.
The fake accounts mostly promoted the current Malaysian government, and carried allegations of corruption targeting the opposition.
Even more astonishing, it is written in the Facebook report that this Malaysian troll factory is linked to the Malaysian police, whose actions it defended.
Information which did not fail to cause an outcry in the country, the police deny any link, when certain members of the opposition did not fail to demand the opening of a parliamentary inquiry into this subject, in vain.
Malaysians in search of answers
For Khalil Majeed, head of the NGO fighting disinformation Faqcheck, in the current state of things, many questions remain unanswered: "
What was done with his accounts, where did their financing come from, who was in charge of this, what was the purpose of it?
I think we should be able to answer all these questions.
Citizens would like to understand why the police need these so-called “
cyber troopers
” and if they use them, who are they targeting?
The reasoning behind all of this is important, so I think on the Facebook side it would be wise to share their information and transparency should be in order
.”
Facebook's report is actually quite sparse in detail, but it does state that the trolls in question were mostly active on weekdays, except at lunchtime.
►
Read: Meta's quarterly report on global online threats
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