The Iskandar Puteri MP said inspector-general of police (IGP) Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani’s update on their probe yesterday was unsatisfactory, pointing out that it had been more than a month since Meta made its claims.

“It has been 40 days since Meta made the revelation on Aug 5 in its Quarterly Adversarial Threat Report that it had removed hundreds of Facebook and Instagram accounts, pages and groups that were part of a ‘troll farm’ aimed at influencing social media users in the country.

“Why are the police taking weeks and months to deal with a problem which operates in seconds and minutes,” he said in a statement.

Lim also questioned if Bukit Aman’s commercial crime investigation department (CCID) will be reaching out to Meta to obtain more information on its allegation.

Having previously proposed a public inquiry headed by a judge or former judge into the matter, he hoped that the IGP would agree to this to restore the police force’s credibility in the eyes of the public.

“The IGP should state whether the police are willing to cooperate with an independent inquiry, which would include inviting Meta to disclose evidence proving the force’s link to the troll farm,” he said.

On Aug 5, Meta alleged that the police may be behind a network of accounts and pages on social media that had attempted to manipulate public discourse in the country.

The company, which owns Facebook and Instagram, stated that 596 Facebook accounts, 180 pages, 11 groups and 72 Instagram accounts were removed for policy violation against coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

Yesterday, the IGP said Bukit Aman was still investigating the matter.

Despite Bukit Aman’s denial back in August, he said he had instructed the CCID to review Meta’s allegation.