KOTA BHARU, Jan 21- The Communications Ministry, through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will introduce a new chatbot feature as an improvement to the Sebenarnya.my portal, which will be launched in the near future.
Communications minister, Fahmi Fadzil said this approach is one of the ministry's efforts to help users track any information they receive on social media, including whatsapp, while also countering fake news.
He said currently, the Sebenarnya.my portal operated by MCMC acts as a one-stop centre for the public to check unverified news online through social media platforms, instant messaging services, blogs, websites and others in written form.
The Chatbot on WhatsApp will use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to verify whether any video or graphic sent through social media is true or not.
"Sebenarnya.my will have a WhatsApp Chatbot that we can forward messages to and the AI will answer whether this information is authentic or not. At the moment it is still text based but I have asked the team to look into the video information," Fahmi said.
"For example, because sometimes people send videos that are downloaded from sources we don't know where from, but they circulate and arrive without verification. So this is one of our efforts to help users verify any information they receive on social media, including WhatsApp," he said.
He said this to reporters after attending a get together with breakfast with members of Kelantan Media Club (KEMUDI),here.
Also present were the Deputy Director General of the Broadcasting Department, Nasaruddin Abdul Mutallib, Director of RTM Kelantan, Shaheezam Said and President of KEMUDI, Yatimin Abdullah.
According to Fahmi, several social media platforms, such as WhatsApp, often become a haven for irresponsible individuals to spread false information or incomplete information which can raise various questions and slander due to the lack of confirmation from the authorities.
In this regard, the public is reminded to always be careful in receiving and disseminating information since the WhatsApp application is a medium for the community to send various messages.
Commenting further, he said, social media is not like mainstream media presented by media practitioners who verify before publishing any news or information to the public.