Malaysian social media users share fabricated graphic about special retirement fund withdrawal

Published on January 4, 2025 at 09:41
Updated on January 6, 2025 at 03:11
3 min read
By Raevathi SUPRAMANIAM, AFP Malaysia

Social media users have shared a fabricated news graphic purportedly from a Malaysian broadcaster that falsely claimed the public would be allowed to withdraw 10,000 ringgit ($2,200) from their mandatory retirement savings funds in December 2024. While a one-off special withdrawal was authorised in 2022 during the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has not agreed to let citizens take funds out early despite calls for it to do so again. TV3 also said it did not publish the graphic and called on those responsible to "stop making unethical edits".

"EPF withdrawal of RM10,000 has been allowed starting today, December 2024," reads the Malay-language text of a purported news graphic by Malaysian broadcaster TV3 shared on TikTok on December 18, 2024.

The Employees Provident Fund (EPF) is the compulsory retirement savings plan for Malaysians working in the private sector.

The purported graphic features the logo and web address of TV3, alongside an image of people queuing up at an EPF service centre.

Screenshot of the false TikTok post captured on December 26, 2024

Malaysia allowed a special withdrawal from the retirement fund -- with a cap of 10,000 ringgit -- in April 2022 to ease the burden of those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic (archived link).

The bulk of funds from the EPF can only be withdrawn after retirement but following mounting calls to allow more withdrawals, the fund was subsequently restructured to add a third account holding a small portion of accessible savings (archived link).

However, the government has stopped short of allowing another round of special withdrawals from the main accounts, saying it had to ensure members retained sufficient funds for their retirement (archived link).

The purported news graphic was also shared elsewhere on TikTok here and here, as well as on Facebook.

Both TV3 and the EPF have called the claim "false" in separate statements.

False poster

A Google reverse image search led to a post on TV3's official Facebook page published on December 18, 2024, where it denied publishing the report (archived link).

"Stop spreading the fake poster as the report is false. To the responsible party, stop doing unethical edits and spreading fake news to the public," the broadcaster said.

The graphic in the TikTok post is also not formatted in the same way as those published on TV3's official Facebook page.

The fabricated graphic uses a different font, contains spelling errors and does not include a date. The text box is also above the image, rather than below.

Below is a screenshot comparison of the fabricated graphic (left) and a genuine TV3 social media graphic (right):

Screenshot comparison of the fabricated graphic (left) and a genuine TV3 social media graphic (right)

The EPF also rejected the graphic in a statement on its official Facebook page on December 18, 2024, and directed members of the public to its official social media accounts and website for accurate information (archive link).

Its post included a screenshot of the fabricated graphics with a "false" label over the image. "Don't fall for false information on social media," the post said.

Reverse image searches on Google found the photo of people queueing up for EPF services was in fact published by local newspaper The Star in March 2024 (archived link).

The report did not mention the government allowing early withdrawals from EPF accounts.

January 6, 2025Corrects an error about the structure of retirement fund accounts in the sixth paragraph

January 6, 2025 Corrects an error about the structure of retirement fund accounts in the sixth paragraph

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