This year, the police will focus more on fighting crime being perpetrated on social media as Malaysians have been shown to be less than mature in using that facility, inspector-general of police Khalid Abu Bakar said.

"So for 2016 and onwards we will shift our focus slightly, still on (fighting) crime but we will add the threats on social media which are increasing of late," said the IGP after opening the monthly departmental assembly for Bukit Aman police headquarters this morning.

He noted an international study which posits that 14 million Malaysians are on Facebook , and are making unseemly comments on the online platform.

Khalid lamented that the study found Malaysians have contributed some of the worst comments on the social media website.

"This shows how immature our citizens are on social media and we must arrest their over-zealousness in internet postings which may disrupt public order, cause religious unrest and the like," he added.

The police chief suggested that extending the long arm of the law into investigating social media users will help stop the misuse of such applications and help maintain public harmony.

"It will give them pause from abusing social media and causing disruptions to public order, though we will continue to maintain effective investigations into (offline) crimes," Khalid said.