Rights groups warn of anti-Rohingya disinformation in Malaysia

Rights groups and analysts have warned that a new wave of political disinformation targeting Rohingya refugees in Malaysia is fuelling xenophobia and intimidation against the community.

Fact-checkers have identified false claims about the Muslim ethnic group on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok, including fake quotes, altered videos and fabricated statistics. Analysts cited in the report said anti-Rohingya disinformation has circulated for years during military crackdowns in Myanmar, but said the latest rise appears to be linked to a wider political campaign before Malaysian elections next year.

Lilianne Fan, head of the Secretariat of the Malaysian Advisory Group on Myanmar, said refugees had become a proxy for wider public concerns about the economy, migration, public services, security and national identity. She said these concerns were being expressed in violent and hateful language, with a message that the government was not listening to citizens.

Malaysia hosts more than 215,000 refugees and asylum seekers registered through the UN refugee agency UNHCR. More than 126,000 are Rohingya, making them the largest refugee population in the country.

Anti-Rohingya sentiment rose in late May after social media posts accused Rohingya people of dumping waste from a cattle slaughter during Eid al-Adha. An online petition calling for the government to resettle Rohingya refugees in another country received nearly half a million signatures before it was removed.

Malaysia's human rights commission said last month that it was deeply concerned about growing hostility, discriminatory rhetoric and online attacks directed at the Rohingya community.

Several viral claims identified in the report were false. One Facebook post from a group called "Rohingya Malaysia" claimed there was a call for a Malaysian town to be handed over to a refugee community. Fact-checkers found the post was generated by artificial intelligence and that no such activist group existed. Another image appeared to show a man in robes kicking someone in traditional Malaysian clothing, with text claiming Rohingya people were kicking out Malaysians. The account owner in the United States denied posting the fabricated image.

Other posts used fabricated news reports to claim that two million babies had been born to Malay-Rohingya marriages. The figure was disproved by official data and rejected by experts as impossible.

Fan said social media algorithms reward outrage over accuracy and allow isolated incidents to be applied to the whole Rohingya refugee population. Victoire Rio, a France-based information integrity analyst, said some accounts behind the posts had a history of monetising on Facebook as partner publishers. She said financially motivated activity often uses politically charged issues because they can generate engagement.

Malaysian non-governmental organisations also warned about rising hate speech and intimidation. An official from the Rohingya Rights Response advocacy group, who was not named because of safety concerns, said community members were increasingly hesitant to share experiences or seek support because they feared online abuse or public hostility.

Malaysia is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention and does not officially recognise refugee status. Malaysian Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution said last month that the government would seek to balance security and humanitarian issues by working with other countries with large migrant populations. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said Malaysia would work through ASEAN mechanisms with Myanmar authorities and would seek to address the situation of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh and Malaysia.