The people are not stupid. This is the reminder from Amnesty International (AI) to the government.

Speaking at the 16th International Anti-Corruption Conference in Putrajaya, Salil Shetty expressed concern over the use of sedition laws and plans to curb the social media.

He raised this after lauding Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) advisory board chairperson Tunku Abdul Aziz's remark that people can now protest on the streets without fear of a crackdown.

"But the fact is we do have sedition laws and there have been at least 66 abuses of the sedition law.

"The government is bringing new laws to further curb the use of social media," said Salil, who also noted that certain websites have been blocked.

On the same note, the AI secretary-general conceded that people are sometimes influenced by false information circulated on social media, which has been the government's main justification for wanting to tighten the leash.

"Yes, we have to base it on facts and a great deal of people are sometimes swayed by erroneous rumours.

"But at the same time we need to believe the people are not stupid.

"The people are not stupid. There may be short-term problems but in the end, the truth will come out," he said.

One of the questions from the floor he was addressing was about dealing with lies on social media, "tampered" information and so forth.

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