Rafizi said he received numerous complaints from members of the public, who claimed they were being subject to various actions by the MCMC after posting comments on the PKR elections on social media.

He said some of them were told that their content breached the law, while others were approached by MCMC and police officers for a “meeting”.

Some were also formally notified that they were under investigation and had their smartphones as well as SIM cards confiscated.

Rafizi, who lost his PKR deputy presidency in last month’s elections, claimed that most of the content under probe were simply people’s personal views on the party polls, and did not breach any law.

“After going through these complaints, my view is that this is a form of intimidation to pressure the public so they would refrain from posting content on the PKR elections.

“I believe Prime Minister (and PKR president) Anwar Ibrahim and communications minister Fahmi Fadzil did not issue such an order.

“Perhaps there are certain characters, using the names of ministers, who ordered the MCMC or police to pressure the public, just because they had different views on the party elections,” he said in a statement.

Rafizi, the Pandan PKR chief, urged the authorities to cease from carrying out any further action against the netizens involved.

He said several lawyers have volunteered to represent the social media users pro bono to challenge the actions taken by the authorities.

FMT has reached out to the communications ministry and MCMC for comment.

Rafizi had lost the PKR deputy president’s post to Nurul Izzah Anwar last month, and later resigned as economy minister. He is currently on leave and will officially vacate his minister’s post on June 17.