KUALA LUMPUR – The High Court today issued a prohibitory injunction to prevent Telegram from disseminating harmful content alleged to undermine public trust in institutions and threaten public order.
The order was granted by Judge Mahazan Mat Taib in a lawsuit filed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) against Telegram.
The judge also allowed the government’s application through the MCMC to delete 33 disputed articles in two Telegram accounts – Edisi Siasat and Edisi Khas, according to Berita Harian.
The matter was confirmed by MCMC’s counsel, Datuk S. N. Nair, who spoke to reporters after the proceedings held in chambers today.
According to Nair, the court also set September 24 for the next case management.
He added that the court rejected a mandatory injunction application to block other Telegram accounts in the future that might post similar content, on the grounds that the court could not compel the company to self-censor.
Legally, a prohibitory injunction prevents a party from carrying out certain acts, while a mandatory injunction compels a party to take specific actions.
On June 19, the MCMC had obtained an interim injunction from the High Court to stop the republication of content from the two Telegram channels, Edisi Siasat and Edisi Khas.
This followed MCMC’s move to file a civil action against the two channels, which were identified as spreading content found to be in breach of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The commission said in a statement that this was due to Telegram’s serious failure to curb content that was repeatedly reported to them despite various efforts at negotiation and cooperation.
“These two channels were identified as spreading content found to be in violation of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998,” the statement read, confirming that this is the first action of its kind taken against a social media platform provider. – September 11, 2025