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‘Fake News!’ Bernama lodges police report over viral ‘Private Parts’ post

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The fake news spreading through social media.
BY AKMAL HAKIM           

The Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) lodged a police report over the wide circulation of a short news update it made on on social media that got a little lost in translation.

Bernama TV’s official Facebook account had released a short update regarding the standard operating procedure (SOP) and work-from-home (WFH) guidelines.

The post had information on the enforcement of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in the Klang Valley and Sabah beginning October 22, 2020.

A version of the report which had been translated to Bahasa Malaysia via Facebook’s auto-translation function was screenshot and shared on social media, arguably for laughs.

Supposedly, the original post, which has since been deleted, was badly mistranslated to include the word ‘private parts’ in the message.

Bernama later released a statement declaring that the mistranslated post had been ‘fake news’ and stated that it was an attempt to discredit the government news agency as the viral image had borne its official logo.

The agency also said that it plays a critical role in disseminating accurate information to the public.

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