The social media in Malaysia has emerged as a "battlefield" between opposing schools of thoughts in politics, religion and social issues, says Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.

In declaring so, Zahid said the social media has emerged as a challenge that must be addressed by future leaders as part of the dynamics of human ecology.

"We must not only hope that the (social) media battlefield will not evolve into a real battlefield, like in Iraq, Syria and Turkey. We must enforce it.

"We must not hope that solving the evils of social media is to reduce its influence," Zahid said in his keynote address at Universiti Putra Malaysia's Human Ecology International Conference 2017, which began in Putrajaya today...