KUALA LUMPUR, March 1 — Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi today urged Umno and Barisan Nasional (BN) members to make full use of social media to disseminate party information for the 15th general election.

He said shortcomings in this area by both the party and the coalition contributed to their defeat in 2018.

"Social media has been used as a weapon to slander Umno and the BN coalition by the opposite side.

"The attack has already started as early as the internet boom in Malaysia. Starting with email chains and then the introduction of short-messaging-system (SMS) has been the main channel to attack us every day,” he said.

However, the Bagan Datuk MP said Malaysian have become better at discerning propaganda online.

"They already know and begin to calculate between facts and false, lies and truths.

"I urge all the machinery, members, supporters of Umno and BN not to remain silent and procrastinate. We need to make use of social media,” he said.

He said Umno and BN may not have allocations up to RM40 million for that purpose, but confident it could be done with the sincerity and spirit of struggle of the entire machinery, members and supporters.

The allocation remark appeared to be a veiled attack on the Perikatan Nasional government’s Community Communications Department, which was rebranded from the BN-era Special Affairs Unit that was seen as a propaganda machine.