Zahid said while Umno’s strength lay in physical interaction with voters, younger Malaysians needed to be approached differently.
He said social media campaigns had been important to the electoral victory of US president Donald Trump, India president Narendra Modi and Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto.
“This means we must step out of our cocoons,” he said at Umno’s Digital Era Political Symposium 2026 at the World Trade Centre here.
Adding that digital algorithms played a big role in shaping public narrative, he said Umno members must actively support content created by their fellow party members and allies to create virality.
“The current government has presented 733 new initiatives within 38 months, but not many people speak positively about our prime minister and his work, because of a growing anti-establishment sentiment,” he said.
Zahid said the government should respond swiftly to psychological warfare, and that it was inexpensive to forward messages on social media platforms.
“The best defence is offence. Our problem is not only that we don’t attack, but that we don’t respond when we are attacked.
“I know former Umno president Najib Razak had a vision for the party and government. But organised slander will always overcome scattered truth. The slander thrown at him and the government caused our downfall,” he said.
Umno information chief Azalina Othman Said meanwhile urged the party to establish a permanent wing dedicated to training its members to take control of online narratives.
She said Umno’s competitors had invested heavily in an aggressive digital campaign at the last election in Sabah.
Azalina also said many Umno candidates were politically capable but not social media-savvy, making it difficult to package and promote them within a short period of time.
“We need a structure equivalent to our other wings. Young voters live in the digital world. We cannot just look for them in physical constituencies; we must find them on Facebook, Threads, TikTok, X, Instagram, Telegram and YouTube,” she added.