Self-regulation on the use of social media by netizens in the country is still lacking, despite the increasing incidences of social media abuse lately.

As such, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Law Faculty lecturer Mohamad Rizal Abdul Rahman urged netizens to consult the guidelines provided in the Communications and Multimedia Content Forum of Malaysia (CMCF) as one of the self-regulatory measures on Internet usage.

He said the templates in the CMCF website could be used as guidelines to identify contents that are threatening, offensive, indecent, obscene and false.

"We can use these templates for ourselves and our institutions. If you have an organisation and want to place an Internet content related regulation, you can adapt the templates for self-regulatory control," he said when met by Bernama recently.

The CMCF is an independent body under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), tasked with enforcing the Communications and Multimedia Content Code in the country.

The Content Code comprises industry guidelines for use and/or dissemination of content for community use.

Section 211 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 states that no Content Applications Service Providers shall provide content which is offensive, obscene, indecent, false, menacing or attack the character with intent to harass, abuse or annoy a person.

Offensive or inappropriate content

While Section 213 of the CMA states that the content code should include procedures for dealing with offensive or inappropriate content, restricting the provision of unsuitable content, methods of classifying content and representation of the Malaysian culture and national identity.

The code also includes the introduction of guidelines on the content, advertising besides specific guidelines for broadcasting, online, audio text service and closed content.

Meanwhile, Mohamad Rizal said the relevant agency reserves the right to block contents or websites that violates Section 211 and 233 with the intention to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass individuals, organisations or the government.

"Nevertheless, communication matters in Malaysia - under the CMA 1998 - do not allow censorship but can be blocked, such as news portal The Malaysian Insider for violating the country's laws," he noted.

On Feb 25, The Malaysian Insider was blocked under Section 263 (2) of the act for violating Section 233 of the same Act.

Meanwhile, he said the government's proposal to amend the Act should take into account various aspects, including the implications for policy and affirmative Internet censorship pledge signed by the government when the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) was launched.

"This will involve foreign investors, and they can get out if the agreement is violated," he pointed out.

However, Mohamad Rizal said the amendment had long been proposed when Ahmad Shabery Cheek was still the communications and multimedia minister.

He said it was difficult to prosecute cases under the CMA 1998 as the second element (intent) was not easy to prove on social media.

"Under Section 211 and 233 of the CMA 1998, what is proposed is eliminating the second element of intent," he said.

He said in the first element, there must be an intention to communicate the content that is indecent, obscene, false, menacing and offensive.

"In the second element, the communication is intended to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass and this is difficult to prove, " he said, in referring to the case of controversial blogger Alvin Tan.

- Bernama