Race, religion narratives topped list of social media posts during GE15

Race-based narratives topped the list of local social media posts in the month running up to last year’s general election, with most of them posted by politicians and political parties.

This is according to an analysis published by the Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), which worked together with the University of Nottingham Malaysia, Universiti Sains Malaysia, and Universiti Malaysia Sabah to collect data through a social media monitoring project.

Their report stated that 66,933 posts made across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok between the period of Oct 20 and Nov 26, 2022, were on racial issues.

It was the highest compared to other narratives like religion (24,484), royalty (14,320), gender and LGBT (7,596), and refugees and migrants (3,819).

Oct 20 was the day the Election Commission announced important dates for the 15th general election, which was held on Nov 19, 2022.

According to the report, the highest number of posts about race had originated from political parties and politicians, with the top three actors being the then prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, opposition chief Anwar Ibrahim, and PAS.

It claimed that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and his party were the biggest amplifiers of race, where they managed to catch a huge amount of traction among social media users.  

This was while Hadi only had a significantly low number of social media posts compared to others.

“For example, Hadi’s TikTok feed claiming the DAP was merely using Malay candidates to gain voter traction had 2.5 million engagements counts on TikTok, the highest across all social media platforms,” the report stated in its findings.

Among the key racial issues found to have been perpetrated during the GE15 period were anti-Chinese sentiments, Malay supremacy, and the May 13 racial riot.

It claimed that there seemed to be a “well-coordinated and paid attempt” on social media to generate anti-DAP and anti-Chinese fear and hatred, especially on polling day.

Weaponised Islam

While religion-based narratives came second in the list in terms of the number of postings, the monitoring project found that it had become the main divisive and polarising tool during the election period.

“Islam was weaponised to fan Malay-Muslim insecurities. The focus was often on the need for syariah, and in relation to that, the Hudud law, and the push for the controversial Act 355 Amendment Bill (RUU355) as key to upholding Islamic principles in Malaysia.

“These went hand in hand with attacks against the DAP being atheist and anti-Islam.”

It said that issues on religion had largely intersected with race and became the basis for attacks against LGBT persons.

Hate speech against the LGBT community had also been used as a political tool, and was largely employed to discredit Pakatan Harapan, DAP, and Anwar.

The analysis also touched on a video of former prime minister and Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin alleging that a group of Jews and Christians were plotting for Harapan to rule Malaysia.

While it had emerged towards the tail end of the GE15 campaign period, CIJ said engagement on the video was low and there was no spike in the severity levels.

“In fact, social media users, including from Sabah and Sarawak, called him out for his disinformation,” it stated.

In terms of severity, the analysis found that race-based narratives during the monitoring period also had the highest number of posts with high severity levels.

It said 53 posts had been flagged as Level 3 (dehumanising or hostile), and four Level 4 narratives (incitement or call for violence).

Comparatively, 20,315 postings on religious issues were only rated Level 1 (disagreement/non-offensive) while 3,545 others were Level 2 (offensive/discriminatory).

There were only eight Level 3 posts and two Level 4 posts related to religion, according to the report. - Mkini