Saying Umno members must protect their party leaders, he asked: “If it isn’t us ,who will protect them?”

Nashrol said he had managed to do some research about who was behind The Malaysian Insight.

“We need to find this person, and hold those behind the portal responsible for insulting our party president. We must find those who are behind it to stop all these insults.”

Nashrol said this after claiming that some people were ungrateful to the country’s leaders, referring to ‘endless’ reports circulated via news websites insulting Prime Minister Najib Razak.

“I don’t know how our leaders sleep at night having to hear all these insults channelled towards them, especially the Umno president, who is also our PM.”

He said more insults were being thrown at Najib in the social media.

“Most recently the news website, The Malaysian Insight, they have been insulting the Umno president. We need to find who is behind all the disrespect written about our leaders,” he said during the debate session at the 2017 Umno general assembly.

Home Minister Zahid Hamidi had previously warned portals that they should be more responsible in their news reporting.

The communications and multimedia ministry had, in August, indicated that it was in the final stages of submitting a proposal to the attorney-general’s chambers to consider registering online portals with high traffic.

Its minister Salleh Said Keruak had said the ministry was studying the criteria needed for a portal to be registered.