KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 31 ― You'll be forgiven if you thought a sedition epidemic swept across Malaysia this year.

Just check the statistics. We saw the number of individuals reportedly being investigated for sedition jumping from last year’s 14 to at least 38 this year, while we also witnessed a seven-year record high of 15 Malaysians hauled to court for being seditious.

What happened? Have more Malaysians caught the sedition bug this year? Have they suddenly discovered the Internet and decided to display their seditious thoughts publicly? Have the authorities been beefing up their sedition radar to halt the spread of the disease?

Whatever it is, two things are clear this year: More and more people are getting into trouble for allegedly “seditious” online content with about half of the investigations involving social media posts and PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim making his presence felt even as a prisoner over a sodomy conviction.

Out of the 38 investigated, 18 of them used social media while eight of them were making comments related to Anwar’s conviction ― with overlaps between both groups. About half of the 15 were charged over social media comments, while about one-third were prosecuted due to Anwar-related comments.

Here's a reminder of who got arrested, detained or investigated for sedition this year:

And here we have an overview of sedition cases in court this year:

For a recap of the rumblings of last year which we crowned the Year of Sedition, click here.

To see who got caught up in Putrajaya’s sedition dragnet last year, click here.