No censorship, classification of social media content, says Fahmi

The government does not conduct censorship or the classification of content in allowing or disallowing any form of application or platform to be utilised by internet users, says Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

He added that at present, the government issues no licence to social media platform providers including instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, WeChat and MiChat.

"However, for applications that clearly violate the provisions of the law such as through fraud and impersonation, appropriate action can be taken against them, including blocking the applications from being used by users in Malaysia.

"Enforcement actions taken by the government are based on public complaints or reports from affected parties, according to the existing laws," he said during question time at the Dewan Rakyat sitting today.

Fahmi said this in response to P Prabakaran (PH-Batu), who asked whether the government intended to review its permission for Telegram, WeChat, MiChat and several other chat applications which he said appeared to be having a negative impact on the younger generation. 

Fahmi also said that if any party or individual commits an action or uploads content that violates existing laws, legal action can be taken against the party or individual concerned, not the platform used as the medium of content or information sharing.