Identical posts on KK Mart issue raise suspicion of disinformation effort

 

In the past few days, one particular post regarding the KK Mart debacle has been making rounds through social media, particularly on Facebook.

“Bila isu KK Mart aku baru sedar di Malaysia ni hina Diraja/Sultan lebih sensitif di mata pemimpin berbanding hina Allah & Islam,” the post read.

(The KK Mart issue made me realise that in Malaysia, to mock royalty is a more sensitive matter to our leaders compared to mocking Allah and Islam)

Interestingly, the exact wordings in the post have been replicated by other social media users and shared across multiple “viral” Facebook groups and pages.

It is believed that the first post was made by e-commerce businessperson Fikri Nasir on March 17 - three days after KK Mart apologised for selling socks with the word “Allah” printed on them.

That post was shared more than 14,000 times and garnered more than 3,000 comments. Fikri, whose page is open to the public, has 2,700 followers on Facebook.

From March 18 onwards, dozens of other posts of the same wording were shared by Facebook users either on their personal but public accounts or in public groups with a wide reach like “Kaki Viral”, which has more than 542,000 members.

Suspicious but not definitive

Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) executive director Wathshlah Naidu said the existence of multiple posts using the exact same wording does give rise to this suspicion of disinformation.

However, she said, a cursory review of the posts shows it only has one of four key markers of a campaign or what those studying online disinformation call “coordinated inauthentic behaviour” (CIB).

Centre for Independent Journalism executive director Wathshlah Naidu

She noted that there seem to be some elements of coordination in the sharing of these posts mostly due to their similar content, indicating a possible concerted effort to spread certain narratives.

“One of the things that seems to be really clear is the fact that there is a similarity of content,” she said.

The four markers are similarity in content, timing of the posts, connections between individuals sharing the posts and whether they are paid content, she said.

Wathshlah said it was important to examine the timing and speed of these posts, noting that while some were almost simultaneous, others had significant gaps between them.

However, she added there is no clear indication that the social media accounts that shared the exact same posts were paid to do so.

Wathshlah cautioned that these posts may be an attempt to sensationalise or distort and she urged for a focus on more important issues for Malaysians to discuss and bring to light, emphasising the need for a progressive narrative.

Appealing to emotions

Besides the CIJ, media lecturer Benjamin Loh has also researched disinformation in Malaysia.

The Taylor’s University School of Media and Communication lecturer echoed Wathshlah’s views in saying that the posts do indicate a possibility of a disinformation campaign.

He described the postings as resembling a “grassroots-style campaign” aimed at appealing to the emotions of the masses.

“The tactic that is used in this posting is basically a repetition of the same exact statement over and over again, across multiple accounts,” he said.

Loh suggested that at this point, it could be either an amateur attempt or a small group playing with sensitive sentiments, but he believed it was coordinated.

However, based on a cursory look at the accounts, it is unclear who might be behind the coordination, he said.

Loh added that cybertroopers in Malaysia have a usual modus operandi of using specific terms and keywords related to the party they belong to and they would tailor their posts to cater to different groups.

Media lecturer Benjamin Loh

“But a lot of the tactics of messaging will always remain the same. This campaign has a similar trick to it.

“The idea is that you put out a message. You don’t elaborate or provide any sort of evidence for any of these things. You let the person who read this come to a conclusion based on what they know.” - Mkini