KUALA LUMPUR: No one will be exempted, be they VIP, politicians or celebrities or the man on the street once the new law governing the dissemination of fake news takes effect.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Network Security, New Media Monitoring, Compliance and Advocacy Sector chief officer Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek said no one would be exempt from the proposed law as it was enacted to protect the people.
He said with the introduction of the new law, agencies such as the MCMC would be empowered to get court orders to force platform providers such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to remove postings which are in breach of Malaysian laws and norms.
“The act does not discriminate. The act draws (heavily) on the courts. It doesn’t matter whether the person is a member of the opposition, a minister or whoever.
“We can also ask platform providers such as Facebook to remove any postings,” he said today at the Bicara BH forum on cyber slander, which was held at Balai Berita, here.
Fadhullah said currently MCMC did not have any legal authority to direct any social media platforms to block, delete or drop postings on accounts that are in breach of the country’s norms and laws.
He said the fact that platform providers such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were foreign based was also an additional setback.
“Our norms are different from theirs. Despite us having issues with a certain posting they may not see a problem with it.
“So, many of the cases we raised had been resolved discretely,” Fadhullah added.
He said the commission was hard pressed in getting the upper hand in 30 per cent of such negotiations with the social platform providers.
Most of the time the MCMC argued that such offensive postings was against the Rukun Negara but the platform providers’ countered them back by stating that national principles was not the law.
Fadhullah revealed that political issues dominated the fake news sphere in Malaysia followed by entertainment and health related matters.
He adds that the monitoring of fake news being spread would still be dependent on theneed for members of the public to highlight.
Fadhullah said even developed countries do not have an agency to monitor the spread of fake news, due to the borderless and limitless nature of the internet.
He also said the law against fake news was not something new, as it had already been introduced in some countries.
“In Germany the maximum penalty for spreading fake news is 44 million Euros. Many countries such as the United Kingdom and Indonesia had also started the ball rolling on the matter,” he added.
He also said that the MCMC had the technology to extract fake news, allowing the Attorney-General’s Chambers to present it as forensic evidence in court.
The forum also featured KRU Studios chief executive officer Datuk Norman Abdul Halim and Religious expert Dr Farid Ravi Abdullah.