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18 March 2018

More than 200 nabbed in Malaysia on suspicion of recruiting terrorists via social media

KUALA LUMPUR (BERNAMA) - Malaysia has arrested a total of 249 local and foreign individuals suspected of recruiting members for terrorism through social media so far, Deputy Home Minister Masir Kujat said on Tuesday (March 13).  Datuk Masir said 240 of them carried out their modus operandi through Facebook, eight through Twitter and another one through Instagram. “The arrests were made as a result of police intelligence and monitoring by the Counter Messaging Centre,” he told Parliament during a sitting on Tuesday. Mr Masir was responding to a question from a Barisan Nasional lawmaker on the government’s efforts to curb the spread of terrorism on social media.

He said on Facebook, some 3,871 accounts were monitored, while 800 accounts were blocked. On Twitter, 76 individuals were monitored and nine accounts blocked, while on Instagram, 72 individuals are being monitored.

He added that, to date, 19 individuals, including a foreigner, was currently undergoing a deradicalisation programme under the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2015 (Pota).

“The deradicalisation is systematically implemented using an integrated deradicalisation module for terrorists covering aspects of religious, civic, psychological, family and moral values,” he said.

“The success of this programme will soon be seen as the released prisoners will return to the community and be no longer involved with terrorism,"he added.

To ensure the programme is successful, he said the programming module was constantly being reviewed and improved, through cooperation with international parties on ways to curb terrorism.

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