MCMC claims FB posts cyber-bullied minister in Asia Mobiliti issue

A lawyer’s Facebook post on Asia Mobility Technologies Sdn Bhd (Asia Mobiliti) came amidst several other posts that insulted and cyber-bullied Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

In MCMC’s response to Shamsher Singh Thind’s letter of demand over the issue, it claimed that this was the basis behind its administrative application for Meta to block the posting linked to the company co-owned by Yeoh’s husband.

According to the letter sighted by Malaysiakini dated today, the regulator claimed that Shamsher’s post dated May 26 had triggered online comments that were insulting, emotionally hurting, and offensive.

MCMC alleged that at around the same time that the lawyer’s Facebook post went up, there were several other insulting posts on the social media platform with the intent to harass and cyber-bully Yeoh, who was named in these other posts.

The regulator claimed that Shamsher did not attempt to double-check with publicly available information and allowed his post to stay up.

MCMC said that Meta made the decision to block his Facebook post after evaluating its legal and fundamental human rights aspects.

The regulator reiterated that its proactive monitoring of social media was conducted independently and with no influence from any quarter, including the Communications Ministry, in order to maintain integrity and equality in its actions.

Court action in the works

Speaking to reporters outside MCMC’s headquarters in Cyberjaya today, Shamsher confirmed receipt of the letter.

He also said he would request further clarifications from Facebook on the nature of MCMC’s request. 

“If Facebook agrees to give a statement and be my witness (in court), I will proceed to file a judicial review against MCMC.

“Otherwise, I will haul both parties to court,” said Shamsher who joined about 30 people holding a silent protest outside MCMC against alleged government attempts to stifle critics online.

Previously, Shamsher hit back at MCMC, asking what was untrue and confusing about the blocked post.

He accused MCMC of untruth in claiming the post violated Meta’s guidelines, saying the social media platform only restricts posts in countries based on local law.

This comes after MCMC claimed that Shamsher’s Facebook post on May 26 related to the controversy surrounding Asia Mobiliti had violated Meta community guidelines.

In a subsequent post, the lawyer referred to Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching, noting how she had defended Yeoh over calls for the latter to resign and asked the deputy minister if she was using MCMC to silence critics of her colleague.

In a previous statement to Malaysiakini, the commission said the action taken was in accordance with the standard operating procedure based on complaints regarding the posting, which it claimed contained “untrue and confusing” elements.

Nepotism claims

Asia Mobiliti was appointed as one of the two companies to run Selangor’s Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) programme, a bus-on-demand trial pilot project, for nine months.

Yeoh was accused of alleged nepotism in the matter.

On May 29, Teo reportedly said that calls for Yeoh to resign were “unfair”, adding that it was too early for the latter to do so.

Asia Mobiliti, whose other co-founder is director and former Malaysiakini CEO Pramesh Chandran, said everything was done above board and it is considering legal action against those casting aspersions about the appointment process.

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