MY minister of education falls victim to copycat social media posts containing defamatory material

As the nation clamps down on its cybersecurity measures, Malaysia’s minister of education, Fadhlina Siddiq is the latest victim of copycat social media posts that claim that the minister curses and degrades Malay individuals from Penang.

A police report has been made by Fadhlina and an investigation is underway to find individuals who spread defamatory material, according to a tweet by the minister as seen by A+M.

Fadhlina further emphasised that the freedom of speech is not the freedom to defame others and she will not hesitate to sue for the continued spread of shame and slander in the tweet.

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The poster which has been seen on various personal Facebook accounts and that has been spread in personal Whatsapp groups, mentions that the minister may seem soft spoken, well-mannered and ethical but on the campaign stage, she curses and calls Islamic Malays from Penang a degrading slur.

Furthermore, the poster warns Fadhlina that many are watching her actions and that she does not deserve to be the minister of education.

Fadhlina has also encouraged the public to tag her in the copycat defamatory posters while demanding an open apology from the perpetrators of the poster.

The situation has caught the attention of communication and digital minister, Fahmi Fadzil, who retweeted Fadhlina’s tweet.

In fact, last week Fahmi has said that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will be investigating copycat social media posts that are spreading unverified information to the public.

On Twitter, Fahmi responded to a tweet by the user @KulupFans that uploaded a compilation of eight screenshots of Facebook posts that contained falsehoods about the supposed rise in prices of groceries.

He said that the sentences are all similar and that such acts of coordinated inauthentic behaviour were against the country's communication rules and regulations in the tweet that has garnered a million views, as seen by A+M.

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