Guan Eng calls for update on police probe into ‘troll farm’ claim

 

Lim Guan Eng wants the police to give details of their investigation into the alleged ‘troll farm’ supporting the government and running down the opposition on Facebook and Instagram.

PETALING JAYA: DAP chairman Lim Guan Eng has called on the police to provide an update on their investigation into a claim linked to a “troll farm”, a network of fake social media accounts and pages that tried to boost support for the government and run down the opposition.

Earlier this month, Meta, the company that owns Facebook and Instagram, said it had removed 596 Facebook accounts, 180 pages, 11 groups and 72 Instagram accounts for violating its policy against “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”, alleging that they were linked to the police.

“In response, federal police secretary Noorsiah Saaduddin in a brief statement rejected the Meta report, (and said they) view the allegation seriously and are gathering further information,” said Lim in a statement.

“Todate, there is no response on the progress or outcome of information gathering by the police.”

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Noorsiah’s statement was issued on Aug 6.

In its Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report on Aug 4, Meta said the more than 800 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups it had removed was part of a coordinated effort by co-located operators to corrupt or manipulate public discourse by using fake accounts and misleading people about who was behind them.

Apart from posting memes in support of the current ruling coalition, the network accused the government’s critics of corruption, criticised the opposition and praised the police. - FMT