Social Media Impact on Malaysia’s 13th General Election

Abstract

In the run up to Malaysia’s 13th general election, observers were curious to know if social media would be able to impact the electoral outcome. In the 2008 general election, it was widely accepted that alternative online content disseminated by blogs, party websites and alternative news portals determined the electoral outcome. The opposition then, for the first time, denied the ruling coalition a two-thirds majority in Parliament. By 2013 the role of social media received widespread attention because of its exponential growth in Malaysia since 2008, where there were 800,000 Facebook and 3,429 Twitter users to 2013 when the number increased to 13,220,000 for Facebook and 2,000,000 for Twitter users. This commentary examines the role of social media in Malaysia’s 2013 general election and assesses its impact on the electoral outcome.