GEORGE TOWN: First came a tale of her father owing loan sharks, then one about her being forced to prostitute herself to repay the debts.
But the lore came to an end after Wan Ainsyatul Mime Wan Yuszaidi, 26, was found to have made up the said stories during a podcast on TikTok.
Yesterday, she pleaded guilty before magistrate Siti Nurul Suhaila Baharin for spreading fake news, before she was slapped with a RM4,000 fine.
Wan Ainsyatul Mime admitted to making the statements through a live broadcast from her apartment in Ampang Jajar, Butterworth, at about 3.30pm on July 26, as well as to fabricating stories.
She also acknowledged that her words had caused public fear and anxiety.
The offence under Section 505 of the Penal Code carries a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or both, if found guilty.
During mitigation, Wan Ainsyatul Mime’s lawyer from the National Legal Aid Foundation highlighted her circumstances as a single mother working as a security guard on a RM1,600 salary with two young children and a mother to support.
Naqieya Zulkernain requested leniency, stating that Wan Ainsyatul regretted her actions.
However, deputy public prosecutor Nurul Atikah Asharaf Ali urged the court to consider the widespread accessibility of social media and the potential negative impact of Wan Ainsyatul’s stories.
She stressed the need for severe punishment to deter others from spreading false information on social media.
Earlier, police detected the TikTok video in which Wan Ainsyatul claimed that her father owed RM20,000 to a loan shark, and had given the names and addresses of family members to the loan shark.
She added that she was forced to work for loan sharks in a prostitution ring since February to repay the debt.
