Mixed views on govt's social media licensing move

The panellists at the FreedomFilmFest screening on decoding radicalisation had differing views on the government licensing social media platform providers.

One of the panellists, Faqcheck project director Khalil Majeed, expressed fear that legislation introduced by a government may be abused for its own gain.

“This legislation kind of ticks some boxes for me, but there’s also that one big box of trust in the government that I'm not entirely taking in mind.

"And I hope it works out the way we want it to work out. If it doesn’t, then well, too bad for us. We’ll have to figure out something else and how to solve that problem on top of the other problem,” he said.

However, another speaker on the panel, JomCheck Malaysia editor Imran Noordin, said no control over social media would be harmful.

Too much control would be damaging as well, he added.

Digital literacy needed

He also emphasised the importance of digital and media literacy among those who have access to some sort of device.

“If the leader of the family can take the initiative to educate themselves about the safe use of the internet or safe use of how you act online when you go on social media and stuff, that could be a very, very good start.

“I mean, yes, we cannot control whatever the government does, but we can do something to protect ourselves.

“My biggest worry on our youth is their impact as they grow older,” he said.

Curbing crimes

On Aug 1, the government’s new regulatory framework for social media and internet messaging service providers, enforced under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, came into effect.

Service providers with over eight million users in Malaysia will have until Dec 31 to register for an “applications service provider class” licence before implementation is enforced on Jan 1, 2025.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the government’s move is to curb online scams, cyberbullying, and sex crimes against children, and will not affect constitutionally guaranteed rights to freedom of speech.

Regardless, this drew brickbats from critics including NGOs and opposition politicians.

Room for dissent

Counterterrorism analyst Munira Mustaffa was concerned that such a policy would be hard to roll back after it is implemented.

“It’s reasonable to ask if this legislation is going to be favourable to us as a public.

“Unfortunately the only way to get that answer is when we find out eventually.

“It might not be in a good way or a bad way, but it also kind of reflects on us about our capacity and our limitations,” she said.

Any healthy democracy must make room for dissent, she added.

The panel followed the screening of a documentary titled “Extremists.br” at FreedomFilmFest.

The documentary followed supporters of former Brazil president Jair Bolsonaro and their attack on the country’s seats of power.

It explored the role of disinformation and fake news in creating far-right movements.

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COMMENT | Why licensing won't control internet abuses