Welcome to Faqcheck Insights!

This blog provides companies with essential insights into emerging trends and potential threats to their brand's reputation. 

Every two weeks, we publish articles aimed at assisting both local and international businesses in Malaysia navigate the intricate content landscape and identify sources of misinformation and disinformation online. Here is this edition's compilation.

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Israel-Palestine war: music and more

The boycott against pro-Israel campaigners, celebrities and entertainment acts continue in Malaysia but perhaps at a slightly different temperature. For months now, digital citizens have increasingly employed social media to organize boycotts against artists, singers, and bands that express support for Israel. 

In a latest event, Malaysia’s pop princess Siti Nurhaliza has been under fire for taking part in David Foster’s Indonesian event called Hitman Returns – David Foster and Friends. Popular composer Foster is known to support Israel and had invited Siti to perform in that five-star concert. This irked some of her supporters as she’s known to regularly post about the plight of Palestinians killed in the on-going Hamas-Israel war. But interestingly, not all fans are critical of her decision, as some comments note that they do not want to judge Siti for her decisions.

Meanwhile, American singer-songwriter Bruno Mars also received public backlash for his planned concerts in Malaysia, but similarly received mixed responses. Some conversations call for his boycott, while others are unsure.

These two instances marked a sharp contrast from when the heat was high during the boycotts against McDonalds, Starbucks and Zus Coffee. Perhaps the current mood is veering towards how boycotts are becoming unsustainable. This Reddit thread also discusses this, as netizens are highlighting the uncertainty about future international artists ever performing in this country if they continue to be boycotted.

Additionally, policymakers and corporations may feel lukewarm towards hard boycotts of all Israeli-linked businesses. This sentiment was recently shared by Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, where he said that the country’s economy could be affected if all ties with Israel were completely cut off.

The online community has also been active in pointing out the hypocrisy of boycotts, as the general public could be selectively avoiding brands as shown by the recent Apple Store craze.  There have been online conversations about how Apple fans conveniently forget that the technology brand is on the boycott lists as hundreds, if not more, queue for the opening of a new Apple Store in TRX Mall recently.

The bigger lesson here is for companies to continue to be sensitive to cultural nuances, local conversations and political leanings when operating in Malaysia.  Due diligence is necessary along with insights into local knowledge of popular culture, retail habits and online consumption. Companies have to be across trends and potential misinformation about the brands or artists they engage with, in order to ensure business runs as usual and smoothly.

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Petrol and diesel subsidies

Malaysia’s recent removal of diesel subsidies points to a significant shift towards fiscal sustainability and economic efficiency. Recent reports of yearly RM4 billion savings and news of reduced diesel smuggling in Thailand and price adjustments in Singapore justifies the government’s move, and will fuel other changes in subsidy approaches soon.

It’s public knowledge that the diesel news is a precursor to the policy shifts to RON95 petrol subsidies. Therefore companies need to be aware of the online chatter on this topic, which include fear mongering sentiments to politics, to commentaries on the reinvestment of savings into public transport.

Corporations who want to embark on price hikes or adjustments must justify their moves and convey accurate information about the benefits of targeted subsidies. Unscrupulous parties are subjected to similar penalties imposed on profiteering tactics post-diesel subsidy removal.

As with any major announcement, news about the RON95 rationalisation could generate anger, confusion or misinformation about “greedflation” and unreasonable price increases. Greedflation is a portmanteau of two words: "greed" and "inflation." It refers to a situation where companies or businesses take advantage of market demand by increasing prices excessively, leading to higher inflation rates. Unethical price manipulation will anger consumers, who will then opt for alternatives or likely boycott the offending brand altogether.

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Health scare - the flesh eating bacteria

Companies that are involved in the food and beverage sector, tourism and related sectors may be affected by the latest news of a surge in STSS or Streptococcal Toxic Shock Syndrome in Japan.

The outbreak has been particularly severe in Tokyo and the surrounding Kanto region. Governments in the region, including Malaysia, are worried about Japan’s 977 cases, exceeding last year’s 941 cases.

The STSS, caused by invasive strains of the Group A Streptococcus bacteria, can lead to necrotizing fasciitis, a severe and rapidly progressing multi-organ infection that can result in death if not treated promptly​.

Malaysia’s Health Ministry is seeking guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO) on suitable preventive measures, while companies should be on the lookout for information that could be misleading about this outbreak that adversely impacts products and services.

Fear-mongering and alarmists posts, and others like this can unnecessarily hype up irrational concerns and sensationalise the issue. While others have taken advantage to promote AI-powered health information which needs to be verified.

Without verification from health authorities, or the WHO, such news could fuel anxiety in tourism related companies that manage travellers from here to Japan and back. This also includes other tourism players who run businesses supporting the renewed interest from Chinese travellers to Southeast Asia and Japan.

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AI - is it all hype and experimental?

Conversations about artificial intelligence (AI) continue to dominate the online space, as more companies embrace this technology to improve margins, productivity and efficiency.  But companies need to be aware of the risks and not fall into the trap of getting lost in the hype without truly understanding if the technology is useful.

In the case of copyright infringement issues, these reports on ChatGPT and Perplexity point to the risk of content being scrapped without proper attribution.  Companies or professionals involved in content creation need to be aware about its intellectual property rights and publication of original material, and if there are any legal recourse or protection if such infringement takes place.

Adobe is also under fire, particularly Adobe Firely, as it was accused of being ambiguous with its terms and conditions about training its AI models on clients’ work or accessing clients’ creative output.  As a response, the company altered terms and conditions again to reassure users that it would not do that.

Fineprints need to be studied as well, and companies engaging in services that need AI support must be aware of what controls it loses or gains when adopting AI.  Security and privacy risks are brought up in news about Microsoft’s CoPilot, where the AI powered Windows feature - Recall - takes screenshots of users’ active screens. Potentially this is a goldmine for hackers if users’ sensitive data is captured using this tool, and large corporations need to be aware of this risk.

Additionally, there is an issue of the repetitiveness of AI-generated data corrupting the AI model itself runs a risk of producing meaningless data or biased information. On the flipside, there are movements led by those fighting against AI to prevent creative work from being “stolen”.  Tools like Nightshade and Glaze are being used as weapons to protect original creations, and as a way to force AI companies to respect and pay royalties to creators.

In the light of such cases, it’s important that communication between technology providers and companies with ambitious use of AI must remain constant and transparent.

Stiff competition will pressure companies to integrate AI into their products and services. However, management teams must ensure robust data security measures, maintain human oversight, and regularly update their AI systems to mitigate risks. Companies should avoid 100% reliance on AI and recognize the importance of respecting content creation, paying royalties and fees accordingly to maintain professional integrity.

Additionally, maintaining ongoing dialogue is crucial for minimising misinformation or disinformation and accounting for all risks when navigating the complexities of AI in content creation.

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