“No such directive was issued by the minister,” the ministry said in a statement. The minister is Saifuddin Abdullah.

The ministry added that it had always encouraged its personnel to “support efforts” to publicise information via social media.

In social media posts that went viral recently, it was alleged that the staff had been told to engage with Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts belonging to Saifuddin, his deputy Zahidi Zainul Abidin and secretary-general Mohammad Mentek.

These alleged orders to the staff caused an uproar online, with some questioning whether the ministry had the right to order its employees to “follow” certain pages as a worker’s social media accounts were his or her private property.

According to the viral posts, division directors had been told to monitor their staff’s social media accounts to ensure they had liked or were following the relevant pages.

It was also alleged that staff were told to open new accounts on popular social media apps if they did not already have one.

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