Pmx Roasted Over Mkini S Damning Expos Of Relying On Cytro Forces To Artificially Boost Popularity

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WHO can blame detractors from seizing the moment to troll the Madani government following Malaysiakini’s claim over the existence of a coordinated astroturfing network of 263 Facebook accounts artificially boosting support for Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim?
The network included the Facebook account of Syukur Aiman Shukri, a state-level PKR Youth official who denied being a cybertrooper although data from his account suggested otherwise.
Thus far, 76 accounts, including high-priority ones, had been removed following probe by the Malaysia’s pioneering news portal while the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) denied any involvement while confirming that no taxpayer funds were used to fuel the network.

Table credit: MalayasiakiniThe discovery comes two years after FB parent Meta removed a separate 600-account network engaged in pro-government manipulation which it linked to the police.
The ensuing drama of Meta briefly suspended Malaysiakini and KiniTV‘s FB accounts – and the personal account of at least one of its administrators – less than two hours after its damning revelation had further raised public suspicion of a possible cover-up orchestrated by Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
This is despite Meta having notified that the news portals have violated its community guidelines on cybersecurity that ban people from “gathering sensitive information from others” to which Malaysiakini countered that its investigation relied solely on publicly visible information.
Former Barisan Nasional (BN) strategic communication deputy director Datuk Eric See-To was quick to capitalise on this development by claiming that “Malaysiakini (has) just embarrassed PMX badly”.

“Their probe found a network of 263 Madani cybertrooper accounts working in coordination to fake support for PMX – responsible for about 25% of all comments on PMX’s social media accounts,” trumpeted the once lieutenant of disgraced former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
“They recycled the same clichés like ‘Madani government proof’, ‘highest FDI’, PMX Madani government’ and ‘economy strengthening’.
“Amusingly, activity peaked during office hours and dipped on weekends – like a 9-to-5 job. Analysis of 6,000+ comments showed spikes on weekday afternoons and evenings, then a sharp drop on Saturdays and Sundays.”
Added the Madani government critic who is renowned with his moniker Lim Sian See: “The operation ran in 27 account clusters posting within 10 minutes of each other, bot-style.
“Experts said it looked ‘professional’ but was actually low quality with repetitive vocabulary compared to real users. Researcher Benjamin Loh called it ‘lazy and sloppy’.
“Once exposed, the network quickly collapsed: 76 accounts vanished, including 11 of the 13 high-profile ones.”
Elsewhere, PAS information chief Fadhli Shaari also hit out at the Madani government by describing the Malaysiakini exposé as “a very shameful matter”.
“Apparently PMX has been relying on fake accounts to boost its ratings on social media. How much public funds were used for this purpose?” he penned on his FB page.

“If this allegation is untrue, take immediate action. It was reported openly and with complete evidence. This is truly embarrassing for the country. Where can we put our face?” –  Focus Malaysia

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