KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 31 — DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang has called on the government to curb the spreading of fake news and hate speech on social media.
Lim said this was important as these “messages” will distort and poison inter-racial and inter-religious relations.
“Strong and firm action to stop fake news and hate speech which incite inter-racial and inter-religious suspicion, distrust, fear and hatred must be the top priority of the government,” he said during his address at the opening of the Third Lim Kit Siang Cup Young Malaysians debate tournament in Skudai today.
The debate tournament is among programmes organised in Iskandar Puteri today to mark the 62nd Merdeka Day celebrations.
The Iskandar Puteri MP added that the perception created by the social media is a Malaysia which has never been more polarised in racial and religious terms in the nation’s history.
He said it as if the country is teetering on the verge of violent race and religious relations if the highly-orchestrated mountains of fake news and hate speeches which dominate the social media to incite suspicion, distrust, fear and hate pitting race against race and religion against religion is not immediately curbed.
“From my interactions with Malaysians on the ground, whether Malays, Chinese or Indians in this 62nd Merdeka Day celebrations, it is clear that the social media Malaysia is entirely different from real-life Malaysia.
“Instead of inter-racial animosity, distrust, fear and hatred, I find on the ground only goodwill, understanding, harmony and tolerance among Malaysians, whether Malays, Chinese or Indians,” Lim said.
He then cited an example of how social media was recently manipulated to spreading of fake news and hate speech, referring to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) system malfunction last week.
“That incident was used to spread alarm and fear that three million Chinese nationals have entered the country, changing demography in the country.
“There is completely no basis for such fake news as the process of inspecting the entry of foreigners was conducted by the Immigration Department manually.
“All visitors have to follow terms according to the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP),” he said.
He added that if three million Chinese nationals had entered in the three days of the KLIA system breakdown, it would mean an average of one million Chinese national passengers landing in KLIA a day – making the KLIA the busiest airport in the world!
“This would mean over 10,000 aircraft landing in one day – which is a clear impossibility,” he said.
It was reported that there were claims that three million Chinese nationals and other foreigners entered the country during the recent system malfunctions at the KLIA.
The Immigration Department has since clarified that these were false claims.
Lim then urged Malaysians to develop greater social media literacy so that they do not easily succumb to lies and falsehoods of the pedlars of fake news and hate speech.
