News & Reviews:   Fake News

Today, the Malaysia Government is imposing a new rule to tackle fake news. Starting today onwards under the Emergency Ordinance (No. 2) 2021, any individual or party who publish or broadcast fake news about any related COVID-19 and State of Emergency matters will be fined up to RM100,000.

2021 may have been a good start for some but not everyone is having it. For Huawei, things haven't changed much since last year as they are still in the US Government blacklist and it seems that they have no interest in lifting the ban. Plus, five Huawei employees just for laid-off for spreading "fake news".

Today, Vice President of Twitter Keith Coleman has announced a new feature for the social platform called Birdwatch. As the title suggests, it's a new way for the Twitter community to report and prevent misinformation news spread around online. Here's how it works on Twitter.

MCO 2.0 will begin tomorrow (13 January) in Malaysia and with that, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) would like to once again remind everyone on checking facts instead of sending fake news around, as well as behaving nicely when posting comments online. In fact, MCMC will punish anyone who shares any fake news or threatening social posts online with a hefty fine.

WhatsApp has been working on bringing many new features to improve the users' experience. After making dark mode available for all platforms, features including multiple device logins and mute chats forever are also reportedly in the works. Now, a new feature called 'Search the Web' has arrived and is already available to some users.

Some of us thought of it as just another spat between political figure and private companies. But it looks like the small spat between US President Donald Trump and social media companies has blown out of proportion. Yup, Trump has signed an executive order that is aimed at social media companies like Twitter and Facebook.

The battle against COVID-19 is far from over and goes the same for false information around the Internet. Some companies are putting on the effort against this, such as WhatsApp limiting forwarded messages or Facebook showcasing legit COVID-19 news. As for Twitter, they too have a plan which is to put on warning messages.

Ever since WhatsApp implemented new changes to forwarding messages back in early April, it has been reported that there has been a huge effect globally. According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY)'s report, forwarded messages (which is usually made up of fake news and speculations) have been reduced to 70%! 

As we continue to write news pieces and information on how to prevent yourself from scamming, the Lembaga Hasil Dalam Negeri (LHDN) have posted a warning to the citizens on a piece of fake news. According to their Facebook page, they advised the public not to be fooled by a forwarded message about the Bantuan Prihatin Nasional (BPN) package being forfeited if not used during the second phase of the Movement Control Order.

Ever since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, multiple fake news have been floating around online thanks to our naive uncles and aunties in our family chat groups. But do you know how many are there right now? According to the Kementerian Komunikasi dan Multimedia Malaysia (KKMM), there is as many as 167 fake news about COVID-19 officially.