MCMC ups its advocacy campaign in fight against fake news

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will continue intensifying its public awareness and advocacy campaign nationwide in the fight against the spread of fake news.
Its chief operations officer, Datuk Dr Mazlan Ismail (pix) said this effort was critical as the threat of fake news was prevalent and anyone could be a victim.
He said it was also to ensure that cyberspace would be free of content that could be detrimental to society and country.
"It is important for us to first take a pre-emptive and preventive approach as a delayed action to tackle the issue of fake news could have a big impact on the nation's well-being," he said in a statement, here, today.
Mazlan urged the public to join the campaign and cooperate with the enforcement agencies like MCMC and the police in combating the dissemination of fake news.
"The public can help tackle this problem by not creating fake news and sharing it with others, while they also have the power to choose the kind of content they wish to view or read.
"If they are unsure of the validity, they can channel the news or content to the sebenarnya.my portal for verification or communicate directly with the agencies concerned," he said.
Mazlan said various initiatives had been implemented by MCMC in the fight against fake news previously, such as forging strategic cooperation with the relevant parties or agencies, launching of the sebenarnya.my portal, and holding sebenarnya.my roadshows and the Klik Dengan Bijak (KDB) campaign across the country, which all received encouraging response from the public.
"The proof is since it was launched in March last year, the sebenarnya.my portal has recorded over 25 million hits, with average hits of almost two million per month. The analysis done through this portal shows an average increase of 10% per quarter of the year.
"The increase is a positive indication to the level of public awareness and acceptance of the prescribed practice of checking, analysing and verifying news received.
"The increased awareness is also evident as almost 100 strategic partners from various ministries and agencies in various sectors have also joined in the channelling of information to the sebenarnya.my portal," he added. — Bernama