Fahmi: MCMC to probe 'coordinated' copycat cost of living laments

The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission has been tasked to probe copycat social media postings lamenting the cost of living.

Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said such messages were in violation of the rules.

"Wow, all the lines are the same. This is called ‘coordinated inauthentic behaviour', and clearly violates several rules," he said.

Fahmi (above) did not specify what rules exactly had been violated.

The minister was responding to a tweet, which highlighted that at least eight social media accounts on Facebook had posted very similar messages about the cost of living.

It goes to the tune of groceries costing RM200 a month in the past but now cost RM500 a month.

The postings appear to originate from a Kosmo! article bearing the same headline.

The article claimed that RM500 a month is the cost of groceries for a household of four now.

This itself appears to be based on a comment by one shopper the Malay daily met at a market, who commented on the RM300 increase in monthly groceries cost.

Downward trend

However, neither the interviewee nor the article benchmarked how far in the past did her groceries cost RM200 a month.

The article also quoted two other shoppers, who lamented the high cost of chickens and tomatoes.

Inflation is currently on a downward trend, according to the Department of Statistics.

As of May this year inflation was at 2.8 percent, down from 4.7 percent in August last year.

Inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages, however, has been on a slower downtrend, being at 5.9 percent as of May.

It has been hovering around seven percent from July last year up until February this year.

In the past decade, inflation for food and non-alcoholic beverages was lowest in August 2018, at 0.4 percent.