Political will needed to hold cybertroopers accountable, says researcher

KUALA LUMPUR: The next elected government in Malaysia must be committed to tackling the spread of misinformation online, says a senior lecturer at Taylor's University.

Dr Benjamin Loh, Lead Project Investigator for a new European Union (EU) report on cybertrooper activity in the country, said there had been little political will to counter online trolls despite its prevalence in the digital space.

“We’ve had three governments since 2018 and another general election coming up, but we have not seen any form of legislature that comes close to doing anything to remedy this situation,” he said.

“At this point, it’s quite beneficial for all political parties to be given the opportunity to use cybertroopers because it’s a useful way to build support for yourself, but at what cost?”

Launched today, the report suggested that most political parties on both sides of the divide engaged in the use of cybertroopers.

It defined cybertroopers as individuals paid by government actors or political parties to spread disinformation online, with the purpose of influencing public opinion.

Carried out from October to December 2021, cybertrooper accounts were found to be most active on social media platforms Facebook and Twitter.

Loh noted that Malaysia was one of the few countries at the forefront of being exposed to cybertrooper activities for the last 20 years.

“As a result, the entire Malaysian online discourse has been poisoned by this idea that there are cybertroopers operating with impunity in our online spaces,” he said, adding that this has adverse effects on democracy as it deterred people from engaging in public discourse.

It has also created a “toxic” online environment which lacked well-balanced discussions.

Previously in its quarterly adversarial threat report, Meta revealed that it had removed over 600 accounts from Malaysia for being part of a “troll farm” aimed at manipulating public discourse.

The accounts were removed for violating its policy against coordinated inauthentic behaviour and allegedly had links with the police force.

A 2020 media manipulation survey by the Oxford Internet Institute also identified Malaysia as one of the 81 countries with disinformation being produced on an “industrial scale” by major governments, public relation firms and political parties.

Using media literacy to fight back

Beyond changes in legislation, Loh stressed the need to equip the public with media literacy skills, especially in anticipation for the spread of disinformation ahead of the 15th general elections (GE15).

They must be taught to utilise fact-checking sites and refer to multiple news sources to avoid creating an echo chamber.

Outreach programmes should also be conducted to ensure those living in rural areas are not left behind.

Loh added it was crucial to ensure the people were able to make use of these skills for the long term, as being media literate now requires extra effort to verify news.

“In today’s social media environment, even newspapers have been called into question,” he said. “So the only way is to read as much as possible and for the average person who just wants to be kept up to date on the latest information, that is incredibly onerous.”

He suggested integrating mental wellbeing and emotional checks into media literacy practices to enable people to balance their political exposure with their mental health.