According to THIS ARTICLE:
In less than a day, it drew more than a million responses which caused the team to suspect that the results were being manipulated. The Star Online polls attract an average of not more than 30,000 responses over several days.
Furthermore, the total number of unique visitors to The Star Online is about 400,000 per day, lending further credence to our suspicion that there was manipulation afoot.
This could be done in several ways, for example through scripted routines or "bots" that come in to a site to perform the same task over multiple repetitions. Indeed, an initial examination of our site logs showed about one million submissions to the poll page from just one IP address.
If that is so, perhaps The Star should clarify a few issues:
1. Why didn't The Star support this allegation with a screenshot of their site logs to show how ONE MILLION SUBMISSIONS to the poll came from just one IP address? Disclose that IP address and let us see for ourselves the location of that IP to confirm if it is indeed from Malaysia. It can be easily checked via IP trackers such as THIS ONE.
2. Has The Star reported to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) HERE to report the alleged attack? Then, perhaps they can let us know what are the investigations being carried out and subsequent findings of the investigations and if the alleged attacker/manipulator has been found.
3. The Star's report seems to be contradictory in some areas.
While it says that "the total number of unique visitors to The Star Online is about 400,000 per day", it also said that the one million submissions to the Bersih poll was from ONE IP address.
Is it not possible that a large majority of those 400 000 visitors to The Star Online site voted?
Based on the claim by The Star that one million hits came from ONE IP ADDRESS, does it not imply that NONE OF THE 400 000 daily visitors did not vote? How then can it be possible that such a thing happened?
Did The Star ever think that it is highly possible that TO EXPRESS THEIR SENTIMENTS, MORE MALAYSIANS logged in to TAKE THE POLL? Much to my regret, I did not take part in that poll as I only participate in polls run by Malaysian Digest.
If they have a site log, it should show the IP addresses of those 400 000 visitors and also the activity that each visitor did in the site, including whether they voted!
And if so, why hasn't The Star substantiated their claim with SOLID EVIDENCE instead of mere words?
4. Take a look at The Malaysian Digest poll available HERE.
Once a person has voted, it says:
Should Bersih 2.0 rally be held despite warnings against it by numerous parties?
Yes - 87.1%
No - 12.9%
You have already voted. Only one vote each 24 hours is allowed.
Tell me - if Malaysian Digest can install such security features to avoid spamming by bots, did the Star do the same? If not, WHY?
Tell us the truth please WITH SOLID EVIDENCE, DATA etc.
Otherwise, it is a case of Manipulation? Really meh? Show us the evidence.
nick Sis,
The actual truth is that the management of The Star were caught with their pants down. They never suspected that so many Malaysian ware in agreement with the rally and have taken the time to participate in the online poll to voice their agreement.
It is laughable for The Star to dismiss the poll results as being manipulated as they are the ones who conducted it and manage it. And to top it off, trying to lie by saying that a million votes came from a single IP address! How stupid do they think we are? Any self respecting net expert and hackers will never do something so clownish! Only someone with the IQ and the stupidity of the communication mon'ster" would come up with such bovine excrement laced logic and accusation (Anonymous hackers and the Bersih people are the same just because bersih use 2.0 instead of II? Stupid is as stupid does!).
To the Star top management, grow up! Just tells us the truth that the government is not happy with the poll and they have instructed you to do a back flip to hide the truth. It looks like that the Star top people are pond scum, nothing more and nothing less.. maybe even lesser than pond scum which is the waste treatment pond scum. If you're not with the people then you're against the people. Therefore I would think it would be appropriate from here on that all Malaysian who supported the BERSIH rally boycott The Star (I have boycotted all other malay dailies owned by UMNO for years BTW).
Nick.