Govt does not conduct censorship, classification of social media content - Fahmi

KUALA LUMPUR - The government does not conduct censorship or classification of content in allowing or disallowing any form of application or platform to be utilised by Internet users, according to Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

In fact, he said, at present, the government does not issue any licence to any social media platform provider, including instant messaging applications, such as WhatsApp, WeChat, MiChat and the like.

"However, for applications that clearly violate the provisions of the law such as fraud and impersonation, appropriate action can be taken against them, including blocking the applications from being used by users in Malaysia. ‘”...enforcement actions taken by the government are based on public complaints or reports from affected parties according to the existing laws,” he said during question time at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.

Fahmi said this in reply to P. Prabakaran (PH-Batu) who wanted to know whether the government intends to review the permission to use Telegram, WeChat, MiChat and several other chat applications that are seen to have a lot of negative impact on the young generation.

Fahmi said if any party or individual commits any action or uploads content that violates existing laws, legal action can be taken against the party and individual concerned, not the platform used as the medium of content or information sharing.

In reply to a supplementary question from Prabakaran on the government's effort to provide a platform for rural youth to use social media for creative work, Fahmi said the government, through the Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), had created 911 digital economy centres (PEDi) nationwide.

He said the number of the PEDi is also expected to be increased to catalyse the digital economy in collaboration with social media platform providers to encourage the participation of young people in the digital economy.

"The government views social media as having a very important role not only as a medium of expression but also for digital economy.

"Many young people now are involved in online business, such as the young entrepreneur Khairulaming who recorded sales of RM21.5 million for his product, Sambal Nyet, in the past two years," he said.

Meanwhile, Fahmi said the government will assess the importance of creating a cross-ministerial committee to examine the effects of cyber and digital use on young people and aspects of digital security from time to time.

He said the ministry had also carried out various programmes such as awareness campaigns through agencies including MCMC and CyberSecurity Malaysia and established partnerships with telecommunications companies Celcom and Digi.

For example, he said the collaboration through the National Anti-Scam Tour launched last Saturday aimed at increasing awareness among the general public about the importance of being vigilant when using social media. - BERNAMA