Lim said the police’s denial of the allegations were unconvincing and called for a current or former judge to lead the public inquiry into the claims made by Meta, the technology company behind Facebook and Instagram.

The Iskandar Puteri MP also urged the police to state whether they would cooperate with such a public inquiry into the allegations implicating them.

“We must make sure that the information age in Malaysia does not deteriorate into a disinformation age, where the police and government take part in the spread of disinformation.

“It would be a serious abuse and misuse of the people’s trust if the government or one of its departments is involved in such a disinformation campaign,” he said in a statement.

On Friday, Meta said more than 800 Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups were in the “troll farm” network, and had posted memes in support of the current ruling coalition, accused its critics of corruption, criticised the opposition, and also praised the police.

The company also said it had removed these accounts, pages and groups linked to Malaysian police for violating its policy against “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”.

“Inauthentic behaviour” describes attempts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal, in which fake accounts were central to the operation.

The police have denied the allegations about the network of fake accounts and said they were gathering full information on the matter.