When Shafie Apdal talks about social media we must listen with great attention. After all this is the man under whose watch the Warisan’s social media strategy has become the envy of all political parties.
Thus it is with some bemusement that we hear Shafie Apdal tell the youth of Sabah to not fall prey to WhatsApp, TikTok and Facebook propaganda. If they took him at his word, much would be different in Sabah today.
All those stories of water crisis and electricity cuts and bad roads due to poor handling of the GRS government would have panned out differently. Some would have been nipped in the bud. Some would not have even taken off. Some would have never been ballooned into a full-fledged conflagration.
A WhatsApp video of CM Hajiji addressing in the Sabah state assembly goes viral. That the video was two years old was discovered later. By then at least…Almost everyone had the clips on their phones.
After a Facebook post that the CEO of Sabah Islamic Religious Council (Muis) is under investigation for allegations of abuse of power in its administration, it triggered images of CM Hajiji being silent about the whole matter to inflame passions during this holy month of Ramadan. It also alleged that the CEO of Muis had ordered the transfer of Zakat Fund money of RM14 million without approval.
Warisan IT cell member said their priority was to enter at least 1000 WhatsApp groups before the elections.
WhatsApp news can help deliver votes as well. An IT specialist said that he analysed the role of smartphones in the recent 6 state elections in West Malaysia, he quotes a hardcore Anwar Ibrahim supporter who switched to the PAS after getting WhatsApp messages about Malays losing political power in Malaysia. The IT cell member said their priority was to enter at least 1,000 WhatsApp groups before the elections. As it happened, by the time Kelantan , Trengganu and Kedah went to the polls they had access to over 2000 groups with an average of 150 members per group.
It would be sobering to think that Shafie has understood that social media is a double-edged sword and can damage as much as it can deliver. After all, the abuse of social media can prove to be a great problem for governance. WhatsApp rumours of a cooking oil shortage caused panic in November last year. During Covid the government had to scramble to debunk many conspiracy theories about vaccines that popped up all over the internet.
Alas, Shafie is merely concerned about “anti-Warisan propaganda” on social media.
He told the youth at the Semporna townhall, “I appeal to the youth not to blindly believe the anti-Warisan propaganda being spread on WhatsApp and Facebook… I want you to apply your mind before believing what is being circulated in WhatsApp. “
If only his party’s foot soldiers were as diligent about all social media propaganda. The great bane of social media is we seem to forward first, think later. And many of the Warisan’s trigger-happy internet warriors are prone to that. Thus they create a row by lambasting Hajiji for quotes he never made. But it made the internet warriors happy to have yet another reason to beat up on Hajiji.
The Warisan’s social media strategy has been the great beneficiary of many of these Warisan supporters. It has benefited mightily from doctored photographs like the one of Hajiji having dinner with a controversial Sarawakian businessman which turned out to have been doctored. Or the Warisan might brag “major diplomatic success of Shafie” on Facebook saying its efforts led to the Singapore High Commissioner visiting him in his house.
All parties want a piece of the social media pie. Other parties are no saints. It’s just that Warisan has stolen quite a march in the social media wars. The Warisan and its like-minded fraternity of organizations are the indisputable leaders.
With end-to-end encryption, WhatsApp is the ideal choice for spreading conspiracy theories, fake news alongside jokes and Good Morning messages with blooming flowers. It exists inside its own pre-fabricated echo chamber largely away from prying eyes. But the social media battle happens on all fronts. Told to me by a former editor-in-chief of a news portal, he remembers a social media strategist asking at a meeting with Warisan politicians “What have you gotten to trend on WhatsApp today?”
While we are happy to jump on mainstream media for paid news, many of us are quite unaware that we consume and forward “paid” hashtags on Twitter and Facebook and TikTok everyday.
While he was proud of the success of Warisan social media presence, a Warisan IT cell member also warned, “A dangerous online army of hundreds is following us, which is not even in our control.”
But Shafie has no interest in reining in these demons for they are working quite well for his party for now. He is only concerned about stamping out anti-Warisan propaganda. Luckily for him, few parties can take on that social media army as yet. But it is playing with fire if we truly have a fake news vs fake news war.
What happens if a Frankenstein’s monster grown humungous on its steady diet of fake news one day turns on its master?
Selvarajasomiah's Weblog 
Joe, no different from what you wrote in the earlier post. We are talking about social media la here
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The issue remains the people losing sovereignty because of PTI in the electoral rolls.
These PTI are holding blue IC based on fraudulent SD (statutory declaration) and fraudulent late registration birth cert.
That’s why Home Minister Hamzah Zainudin, now parliamentary opposition leader, placed JPN officers at polling stations during the snap Sabah polls on Sat 26 Sept 2020 and during GE15 in Nov 2022.
The Sabah gov’t should speak with the current Home Minister re PTI on the electoral rolls.
The National Registration Act 1959/1963 states that IC cannot be based on fraudulent claims.
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