The Malaysian government’s tightening of the screws on a key internet directory has heightened concerns over the state of online freedom in the country, following conflict between authorities and social media platforms amid efforts to impose licensing laws.
The move came just days after Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s office expressed its “disgust” at social media giant Meta’s takedown of his message of condolences over the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, prompting a meeting with platform representatives and an apology for the oversight.
On Tuesday, watchdog group Internet Monitoring Action Project (iMAP) reported that two of Malaysia’s internet providers had blocked alternative DNS servers – the internet’s “phone book” – and diverted traffic back through their own, effectively blocking certain websites deemed improper by the government.
Previously, users could sidestep their internet provider’s directory and use publicly available directories from Google or the network security firm Cloudflare to access any website, including those blocked at the behest of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
“Users that have configured their Internet settings to use alternative DNS servers would have found that they are now unable to access websites officially blocked by MCMC and getting a connection timeout error,” iMAP said on its website.
In addition to Malaysia, iMAP monitors network interference and online restrictions on freedom of expression in Cambodia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand, East Timor and Vietnam.
Tevanraj Elengoe, founder of Malaysia’s largest tech community group DevMalaysia, said the move was damaging as it prevented Malaysians from using a more secure and private internet directory, exposed users to data collection, and slowed overall service.
“We used to have a secure connection between personal devices that increased privacy while providing improved performance that our [internet providers] can’t. These are mainly gone,” he told This Week in Asia.
The government recently mandated that social media platforms with more than 8 million Malaysian users must register for an operating licence in the country by New Year’s Eve or risk penalties.
While the government said it was concerned with the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, scams and cyberbullying online, iMAP’s report showed that the website of Murray Hunter, a Thailand-based blogger critical of the Malaysian government, was among the sites blocked.
Calling the DNS clampdown “a concerning development”, human rights lawyer and activist Eric Paulsen said MCMC had “no transparency and accountability” regarding takedown requests.
Paulsen said terms such as hate speech and fake news – used by MCMC in its takedown requests – had no accepted legal definition.
This is on top of the recently floated “3R” category of content touching on issues of race, religion and royalty, which Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has said needs to be weeded out.
“Since when is that set in stone? It’s just a convenient label to sweep everything ‘sensitive’ in the government’s eyes under the carpet, instead of dealing with disagreements like a mature democracy,” Paulsen said.
In a post on Facebook last month, Anwar said he was aware the restrictions being implemented were unpopular, but stressed they were “necessary for the well-being of the community”.
“I stress that the regulations on social media and internet messaging services that the government will soon introduce are to combat the spread of crime and harmful information, thus creating a safe virtual environment for all users,” he said.
Under Anwar’s stewardship, Malaysia fell 34 places to 107th in the World Press Freedom Index 2024 report released in May, down from 73rd last year.
Analyst James Chin from Tasmania University noted that while most Malaysians might agree platforms such as X and TikTok need to be reined in, the rules are not clear.
Malaysia topped a worldwide list of governments asking TikTok to remove content last year, filing more than 2,200 requests relating to over 6,000 pieces of online material from the platform.
“Civil societies are worried that the rules are not clear and that this allows for abuse of power,” Chin told This Week in Asia.
While Anwar’s administration had repeatedly affirmed that the law would not be abused to clamp down on freedom of speech, Chin said such reassurance was not enough.
“Once the law is passed, it is more or less permanent and can be abused [by] whoever comes to power,” he said.
