Review on Fake News in Malaysia during the Movement Control Order (MCO) from the Ethics in ICT Perspective

Abstract

Prevalence of fake news during the movement control order (MCO) could be seen through disclaimers made by the Ministry of Communications and Multimedia Malaysia over the Royal Malaysia Police official social networking sites. The police and MCMC have opened 273 investigation papers with 136 of them under investigation as of 21st of October 2020. Descriptive analysis was used to extract and identify the disclaimers' main points and popular fake news titles. Accordingly, this study identified the viral types of fake news elements and popular fake news titles during the MCO to reflect the most prominent types of news. The ethical considerations in receiving news, not to forward unverified news and the worst is creating fake news are crucial issues to be addressed. Therefore, it is important to educate people by stressing on the important of ethics in ICT.