MCMC: Be wary of fake accounts on social media

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has reminded the public to be vigilant against fake accounts on social media.

It advised users not to treat the matter lightly and that they should take immediate action if they came across fake accounts.

It said the public could help tackle dubious accounts by clicking the Report Fake Account option provided by the social media platform provider for further scrutiny and action based on violations of stipulated community standards.

“Such actions are necessary to prevent the spread of bad content, such as misleading news, hate speech and provocative content that can threaten national security.

“While social media platform providers are actively scanning and verifying the authenticity of user accounts, there are still leakages from them, ” it said.

Even so, users should always be wary of the existence of fake accounts because there were cases where they did not show fake or malicious signs at first, so the platform provider would give them the benefit of the doubt until they showed signs of malicious activity.

“Platform providers will find these accounts when their detection system identifies malicious behaviour or if there are users who report such accounts to them.

“Preventing fake accounts is one way to stop abuse but other protection should also be given once such content is generated and interactions occur with these fake accounts, ” it said.

In this regard, MCMC advised users to be vigilant, responsible and avoid falling victim to fake accounts and abusing social media networks. — Bernama