KUALA LUMPUR – The government is aiming to table a bill on online safety during the next Parliament session, said Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching (Kulai-PH).
Addressing the Dewan Rakyat today, Teo said details regarding the bill were currently being studied by the ministry and the legal affairs division under Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (Pengerang-BN).
“The cabinet has decided there is a need for the Communications Ministry and the legal affairs division to look into the need to draw up an online safety bill.
“Meetings and discussions on the matter have been held and there is a possibility that the bill can be brought to Parliament during the next session,” Teo said during Minister’s Question Time in the lower House.
The deputy minister was responding to a supplementary question by PAS’ Datuk Mumtaz Md Nawi (Tumpat-PN) on whether the government would consider establishing a legislation similar to Australia’s Online Safety Act 2021.
Teo said enforcement authorities, such as police, were afforded the power to make a first information report based on content uploaded to social media.
Teo added that when the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) detects online content that violates the law, it will take the necessary action without waiting on complaints from the public or other parties.
In response to a supplementary question by Datuk Shamshulkahar Mohd Deli (Jempol-BN), Teo said MCMC did not have the final say on whether contentious content would be removed by social media platforms.
“When MCMC receives a complaint from the public, it extends the complaint to online platform providers, which will then determine if the posts in question have gone against its community guidelines.
“Between January 1 and March 1, 14% of the content MCMC requested to be removed (from social media sites) was rejected as the platform providers found that they do not violate their community guidelines,” she said.
She also said of the 86% of the content taken down from various sites, 73% of the posts had elements of gambling while another 15.63% and 4.15% were related to cheating and fake news, respectively. – March 19, 2024