Its chief activist, Nadzim Johan, said the move was fair and necessary to establish a more responsible society, apart from educating people to be more careful and sensitive whenever they wanted to share any information with other members.
“The habit of spreading false information has become a cancer in our society and represents the culture of an underdeveloped society.
“They do not bother to check the validity of the information first before sharing them as it is more fun to ‘share’ a message to all the people.
“This ultimately has an adverse lasting impact on the victim.
“With the related law or acts, it is a good start that will bring benefit to all parties,” he told reporters here today.
Nadzim was commenting on a statement by Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Johari Jailani two days ago that the administrators of WhatsApp group chats could be held accountable under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 if they failed to curb the spread of false information among members as this could jeopardise national security.
According to Jailani, among the offences that fall under the Act include the spread of fake news, libel, fraud and exposure of classified information under the Official Secrets Act.
He urged group administrators to be more responsible and act as “gatekeepers” to stop the dissemination of fake news among group members.