'Stinks of despotism', says group as Putrajaya mulls social media licensing in latest clampdown on online dissent

Rights lawyers have expressed shock at the government's plan to impose licensing and regulate social media platforms, describing it the latest example of the Anwar Ibrahim government's crackdown on political dissent.

Lawyers for Liberty (LFL) reminded Anwar's Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition that it owed its survival to the freedom granted to online news and social media platforms, but was "now planning severe restrictions on it".

"This is the ultimate betrayal of its reform promises and a failure to uphold Constitutional rights," said LFL director Zaid Malek.

He said the Anwar government was continuing the current trend of suppressing public discourse, adding that this was no different from "the time-honoured manner of authoritarian regimes".

"It is thus unsurprising that the government’s new plan to impose licensing and regulations of social media has set the alarm bells ringing. It stinks of despotism and self-interest. It draws comparisons with North Korea, Communist China and PAP-ruled Singapore.

As part of the plan, the government is reportedly proposing a kill switch that would allow content to be deleted immediately, as well as the introduction of a content code for platforms that also regulates political content.

This comes at a time when the Anwar government has come under increasing criticism over the cancellation of diesel subsidies and his plan to appoint a company owned by controversial US fund manager BlackRock to run a consortium to manage Malaysia's airports.

Meanwhile, the government has continued to block news websites and blogs, and requested major social media platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, X and Facebook to delete comments critical of it.

Earlier this year, Putrajaya admitted to making requests through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for platform providers like TikTok to delete videos critical of the government.

Shortly after coming to power in November 2022, the government threatened TikTok as it was unhappy over its wide use by opposition supporters.

Other platforms such as X, YouTube and Facebook have repeatedly refused the government's request to delete content, in line with their policy on free speech.

Since his appointment as minister in charge of media affairs, Fahmi Fadzil has come under criticism over action taken against media outlets.

In June last year, MalaysiaNow was blocked for 48 hours without any notice.

TV Pertiwi and Utusan TV had their websites blocked as well, in addition to a blog run by former MP Wee Choo Keong.

The series of measures against the press has resulted in Malaysia slipping 34 places in the annual World Press Freedom Index, from 73rd place last year to 107th.