Malaysia’s Sebenarnya.my portal has been mentioned in a submission by one Singaporean entrepreneur at a public hearing on deliberate online falsehoods today.

According to Hazrul A Jamari, one way to prevent the problem is to have a localised version of Snopes.com, saying the Malaysian government had launched something similar in Sebenarnya.my.

In his submission which was made available on the Singapore parliament website, he said Snopes.com covers a wide array of online scams and falsehoods to debunk them whereby citizens can refer to these articles first before deciding to share sensational messages that come via their messaging app.

Hazrul noted that in any case, internet falsehoods transcend national borders and “it would be good to have a joint task force to share some of these debunked stories.”

The city-state’s parliament set up a Select Committee on Deliberate Online Falsehoods - Causes, Consequences and Countermeasures on Jan 10, 2018.

The Sebenarnya.my portal was launched on March 14 by Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak.

Developed by the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), it is among efforts taken by the Malaysian government to curb the spread of “fake news.”

While Singapore is in the midst of deliberating the issue, Malaysia tabled its Anti-Fake News Bill 2018 in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.

The bill is aimed at curbing the dissemination of inaccurate news and putting in place deterrent measures.

- Bernama