Press Statement
Govt must not use Israel-Palestinian conflict as an excuse to crack down on social media in Malaysia
13 October 2023
We refer to the statement made by Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil yesterday where he stated that his ministry is taking steps to “ strengthen compliance of the law within social media platforms”, purportedly because an Al-Jazeera report had highlighted Malaysia as an example of “fake news” regarding the ongoing Palestine-Israel conflict.
This appears to be a transparent and clumsy attempt to use this latest tragedy of the Palestinian people as an excuse to clamp down on social media sites.
It seems any excuse will do for this government, previously relying on the so-called ‘3Rs’ and now citing supposed fake news circulation on the Palestine-Israeli conflict as a reason to restrict. It is deplorable that an international conflict high in the loss of human lives is being exploited by the government to justify its domestic agenda of stifling dissent and criticism.
It is hard to give the government the benefit of the doubt, as it has continuously justified the existence of notorious draconian laws such as the Sedition Act 1948 and section 233(1)(a) of the Communications and Multimedia Act in support of its supposed goal to curb ‘hate speech’ and ‘fake news’ on social media. However, the fact that the laws have mainly been used against government critics gives the lie to their narrative.
There is no reason for additional laws or regulations to be introduced to restrict social media. Section 505 of the Penal Code, which criminalises statements conducing to public mischief, would be enough to encompass the concerns that the government is claiming to address.
The ‘fake news’ and ‘hate speech’ tactics by the government seems to be just a smokescreen to mask their intentions to exert control on social media platforms in order to take control of what can or cannot be shared online. In essence, the government wants to be sole arbiter of truth. If this is allowed, then it would render the right to free speech, a fundamental liberty enshrined under article 10(1)(a) of the Federal Constitution, merely illusory as the government can simply wave away this right away by citing the ‘3Rs’ or that it is “fake news”.
The right to free speech is a sacrosanct right that cannot be restricted by mere allegations of fake news or hate speech. If such allegations were substantial, then there are already existing laws that can be utilised against those responsible. As such, we hereby urge the government to stop its campaign of fear and to halt any plans of introducing even more laws or regulations or exert unwarranted governmental pressure on social media platforms that clamp down on freedom of speech.
Issued by:
Zaid Malek
Director
Lawyers for Liberty