GEORGE TOWN, Feb 10 — Police arrested a man for uploading racist statements and insults on Facebook by using a false account yesterday.

Southwest district police chief, Supt AA Anbalagan said the 43-year-old man was detained at Bukit Mertajam at around 7.15pm, following a police report lodged by a factory manager at Bayan Baru, near here.

"The police received a report from a 47-year-old factory manager who claimed that his picture had been uploaded on a Facebook account with status updates that were racist, insulting in nature and condemning Islam.

"The manager suspected that the actions were that of a former employee as he had previously lodged a report on a similar incident against the suspect who admitted and agreed not to repeat the act again,” he said here today.

Anbalagan said that the manager believed the suspect was repeating the same thing to tarnish his reputation as the suspect was unhappy with the manager.

Anbalagan said police seized the cellphone used by the suspect to upload the status, who also admitted to uploading the picture and phone number of the manager.

He said the suspect’s act of abusing social media and using religious or racial sentiments could provoke certain parties and invite threats from individuals.

"The suspect’s actions can also trigger racial incidents and I hope social media users will check before believing in whatever that is posted,” he said.

Anbalagan said the unemployed man had two criminal records and was remanded for further investigation, adding that the case was being investigated under Section 505 (c) of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1988. — Bernama