KUALA LUMPUR: Political uncertainty after the 15th General Elections (GE15) sparked a wave of memes on social media in its wake, but alongside this was a rise in racially charged content, including videos inciting a repeat of the May 13 riots on TikTok.

Speaking on the spread of racial rhetoric online, independent scholar Farhan Shahmi Abdullah warned this could be the start of a dangerous trend for Malaysia.

“Whether this content was manufactured or an organic event that came from the people themselves, we have opened a Pandora’s box of problems.

“There is no guarantee it won’t happen again,” he said when appearing on Astro Awani’s programme It’s About YOUth.

He noted that similar instances had occurred in other countries, such as the barrage of TikTok videos that fueled violence against Asian communities in the United States at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It's About YOUth: GE15 memes, TikTok and the aftermath

For Daniel Teoh, a Chevening Scholar in Political Communication, police action is crucial in tackling hate speech online.

“I think it’s time for us as a society to learn that freedom of speech does not include freedom to incite and call for violence because of racial or religious identities,” he said.

“In the long-term, we can include educational programmes but in the short-term we must see for ourselves the consequences of abusing that freedom.”

Taking legal action would be another option, said Daniel, but it was also a longer and slower process.

Moving forward, Farhan added that media literacy was crucial for people to navigate the sea of disinformation and harmful content online.

It is also time for the new coalition government to hold multi-stakeholder discussions to consider the creation of a national syllabus in schools.

This is on top of reviewing existing policies in Malaysia, especially in terms of countering hate speech, he said.

“We do have the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, but it is time that is updated to reflect what is going on now. This includes separation of freedom of speech and hate speech.”

Political memes: more than just funny images, videos?

As the country awaited the appointment of the 10th Prime Minister, many Malaysians had taken to social media to make sense of current political developments and interact with one another through the use of political memes.

While often seen as a series of humorous images and videos, Farhan points out that memes were also a “democratic political tool” for the people to express their frustrations.

It is also now commonly used to advocate for certain policies, form discussions and engage fence-sitters.

Daniel agreed, noting that memes were capable of informing us on current debates, with several politicians even making use of it against their opponents.

“The best memes are the ones that are strategic, even the humour is strategic.

“In terms of political advocacy, memes are more useful when they poke holes at arguments made by certain political actors. It might even frame and become the main argument against a particular policy idea,” he said.