PUTRAJAYA, April 22 — A portal that utilises artificial intelligence (AI) will be created to help people verify the information they receive, repel defamatory news and fight fraud or scams, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
The portal, he said, was expanded from the special segment ‘Biar Betul!’ which was shown on Broadcasting Department (RTM) channels.
This is as the segment, which was less than a minute long, was insufficient to address the problem and needed to be enhanced.
“It is still in the early stages but there is a need so that the people in general do not have to doubt about the material they read. If there is any doubt, they can refer (to the portal).
“Today, we can watch the episode of ‘Biar Betul!’ on various platforms, including on RTM, where scam materials, fake contents, slanderous news are exposed every day. However, we see that this is not enough and it needs to be improved,” he said after launching the ‘Jom Baca Bersama’ 10-minute programme at the Communications Ministry level, here, today.
According to Fahmi, the new portal will strengthen the capabilities of existing platforms such as SEBENARNYA.MY, under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), and MyCheck.My, managed by the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama).
Fahmi said the ministry will also work with social media platforms so that information received by users goes through a verification process as practised on the X platform that attaches ‘Community Notes’ to a post, allowing users to give feedback on the post.
In addition, a total of 1,878 Madani communities across the country can also be used as ‘Biar Betul!’ agents, as the front line to fend off defamation, correct perceptions and check facts with the ministry to ensure that the delivery of information to the community is done more clearly and in an organised manner.
He said the matter was taken seriously considering MCMC’s data showed that almost 80 per cent of contents downloaded until April was of a scam nature, including advertising fraud and online gambling.
— Bernama
