The raid on Malaysiakini is part of investigations by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) under a law to defend victims of slander, said a deputy minister.

Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Jailani Johari said the probe was carried out following a complaint lodged over “false accusations”.

“Many cases have been investigated under Section 233 (of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998), especially to defend victims whose dignity have been maligned through the use of social media, such as revenge porn and manipulated images,” Jailani told the Dewan Rakyat last night.

Revenge porn refers to the act of uploading sexually explicit photographs or videos of individuals without their consent, and with the aim of humiliating or intimidating them.

Jailani was answering questions in the House on the MCMC raid on Malaysiakini on Tuesday.

A six-member MCMC team confiscated two computers from Malaysiakini’s office following a four-hour raid to facilitate an investigation under Section 233(1) of the CMA for alleged improper network use.

This followed a complaint by the Attorney-General’s Chambers over two videos uploaded by KiniTV in July - one in Bahasa Malaysia and one in English - depicting former Batu Kawan Umno vice-chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan’s press conference after he lodged a report at the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC).

At the press conference, Khairuddin criticised attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali and demanded his resignation for refusing the prosecute the 1MDB case.

The MCMC had instructed KiniTV to remove both videos two months ago for allegedly breaching the CMA.

The online portal refused to take down the videos as it did not believe they were in violation of the CMA, but as a gesture of goodwill removed the word ‘haprak’ (northern Malay slang to mean 'worse than useless') used by Khairuddin to describe the AG.

Jailani declined to elaborate further on the raid, saying it was under investigation and noting that the ministry would let the AGC deal with the probe’s outcome.

He was addressing the House to wrap up the Communications and Multimedia Ministry’s part in the Budget 2017 committee stage debate.

Anthony Loke (DAP-Seremban) had asked Jailani why the MCMC was being used to intimidate the media, which he said could be in violation of the net neutrality promised under the Multimedia Super Corridor.

He added if Khairuddin had said something against the law, the authorities should be probing him and not the media which merely reported what he said.