He said the Cabinet met this morning and discussed the issue after Deputy Finance Minister Abdul Rahim Bakri and Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Zahidi Zainul Abidin had accused the 18-year-old of faking her online exam to garner views for her video.

“The Cabinet agrees that the real issue is internet coverage and other basic facilities, especially in rural areas.

“The government will work as hard as it can to fix this,” he said in a series of Twitter posts.

Veveonah was propelled into the limelight after posting a video on her YouTube channel three months ago about spending 24 hours up a tree near her house to get the best internet connection so she could sit for her exam online.

Zahidi last week accused Veveonah of being a YouTuber and faking her online exam to garner views for her video channel. He later apologised to Veveonah and said he had received “inaccurate information” on the matter.

However, Rahim, in a Facebook post two days ago, said Veveonah lives in town and her family no longer had a house in the kampung where she had claimed to have climbed a tree to sit for the exam.

His post accusing Veveonah of deliberately creating drama to seek attention and publicity sparked an uproar among netizens. This prompted Rahim to later delete the post.

Universiti Malaysia Sabah chairman Masidi Manjun has since verified that Veveonah had indeed sat for her final semester examinations via the internet in June.