Development of a voter digital literacy model to address misinformation in Malaysian election campaigns using the fuzzy Delphi technique

Abstract

Misinformation has become a defining feature of Malaysian election campaigns, intensifying from the WhatsApp-driven 14th General Election (GE14) in 2018 to the TikTok-dominated 15th General Election (GE15) in 2022, where ethnoreligious disinformation, cybertrooper operations and short-form video manipulation shaped public discourse. Although digital literacy is widely proposed as a remedy, no validated, context-specific model exists to guide voter education in Malaysia. This study aimed to develop and validate a Voter Digital Literacy Model to address misinformation in Malaysian election campaigns using the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM). An initial model comprising six constructs and 33 items was derived from a systematic literature review and international frameworks, including DigComp 2.2 and UNESCO's Media and Information Literacy framework. Seven experts in political communication, media literacy, educational technology, electoral governance and Islamic studies evaluated the items using a seven-point linguistic scale. Data were analysed with the FUDELO application using triangular fuzzy numbers, threshold value (d), percentage of expert agreement and defuzzification. Thirty items met all three FDM criteria (d ≤ 0.2, agreement ≥ 75%, Amax ≥ 0.5), while three were rejected. The validated model consists of six constructs: Information Access and Navigation, Source Credibility Evaluation, Verification and Fact-Checking Skills, Awareness of Manipulation Tactics, Ethical and Responsible Sharing, and Civic and Electoral Knowledge. The highest-ranked items were fact-checking service use, pausing before reacting to emotional content, recognising ethnoreligious incitement and refraining from forwarding unverified content in messaging groups. The model offers the Election Commission, educators, civil society and platforms an expert-validated framework for voter education programmes ahead of future Malaysian elections.