June 14, 2024
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s government made the world’s highest number of requests to TikTok to take down content in the second half of 2023, part of a surge in social media censorship that critics say is aimed at silencing political opposition.
According to TikTok’s biannual transparency report, Kuala Lumpur made 1,862 such requests – an average of 10 daily – in that period, 5.5 times the number six months before. The whole of 2023 saw 2,202 requests, a more than 30-fold increase from the 70 requests made in 2022.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition came into power after the November 2022 general election.
By comparison, the next highest number of requests to TikTok in the second half of 2023 came from Australia, with 651 submissions. In South-east Asia, Indonesia was in second place with 351 while Singapore asked for takedowns 47 times. Malaysia alone was responsible for over a quarter of the world’s removal demands in this period.
TikTok did not provide details of the content it was asked to restrict in Malaysia, only saying that it would do so if there was a breach of community guidelines or local law.
Political content on TikTok is dominated by the opposition alliance Perikatan Nasional (PN), and critics have accused the government of silencing dissent by targeting content on the popular video sharing platform.
PN’s success on TikTok was widely credited for the unexpected gains it made at the 2022 general election, with both Parti Islam SeMalaysia and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia more than doubling their seat haul from four years earlier.
Shadow minister for communications Wan Saiful Wan Jan compared the ongoing clampdown to the chilling Operation Lalang of 1987, which saw over 100 politicians and activists arrested as well as the revocation of publishing licences from several newspapers.
“It’s a new Ops Lalang. Anwar criticises what (then PM) Mahathir Mohamad did but now he is doing worse,” he told The Straits Times.
The trend for taking down content was also seen on platforms managed by Facebook owner Meta, which also runs photo and video sharing app Instagram. Meta reported that nearly 8,600 content restrictions were applied in Malaysia in 2023, a 15-fold jump from the 553 applied in 2022.
The surging number of takedown demands comes amid deepening criticism that the multi-coalition “unity government” led by Datuk Seri Anwar’s PH alliance, which has long campaigned on a reformist platform pledging to broaden civil liberties, is clamping down on free speech.
In May, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) released its 2024 World Press Freedom Index, which saw Malaysia fall to 107th place from 73rd the previous year.
“I don’t mind. It does not matter if we are downgraded because we are tough against the racists and the religious bigots,” said Mr Anwar on May 27. His response drew flak from civil society organisations, who said it misrepresented the reasons for the drop in rankings.
RSF had said in its press freedom index report that “news sites critical of the government are often blocked in Malaysia”.
Several incidents of sites being suspended were reported during crucial political periods such as in the run-up to the state elections in August 2023.
Lawyers For Liberty (LFL) pointed to these website restrictions and how “TikTok videos of government critics have also been blocked by the MCMC”, as the real basis of the RSF downgrade. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission is the country’s internet regulator under the purview of the Communications Ministry.
“How can there be freedom of press when all criticism of the establishment is swept under the convenient category of 3R,” said LFL director Zaid Malek, referring to the administration’s claim that it is stamping out offensive rhetoric touching on the sensitive issues of race, religion and royalty.
According to sources involved in social media in the public and private sector, these demands for restrictions are continuing to grow in 2024, with the authorities dedicating personnel to trawl platforms for offensive content.
“A vast majority are political in nature. Over 90 per cent possibly,” said a person involved in the content restriction process.
Meta said in its transparency report for the second half of 2023 that it restricted access in Malaysia to over 4,700 items reported by MCMC, including “hate speech based on religion in violation of Penal Code Section 298A, criticism of the government, and racially or religiously divisive content and bullying” which violated the controversial Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) sections 233 and 211.
These sections criminalise content which is “obscene, indecent, false, menacing or offensive with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten or harass” anyone. Critics, including government MPs, have called for the law to be amended as the ambiguous wording opens the door to abuse.
Neither the MCMC nor Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil responded to queries from The Straits Times on the takedown requests or claims of silencing dissent.
However, Mr Fahmi has repeatedly denied allegations that he has issued orders to block any websites.
When Utusan TV was blocked for “violating national law” during the 2023 state polls, he said: “I have given no instruction to MCMC to block anyone, whether it’s conventional or social media.”
In March, Mr Fahmi was locked in heated debate with Mr Wan Saiful and former education minister Radzi Jidin (PN) in Parliament over whether the latter’s TikTok videos on the shrinking value of the ringgit were “geofenced” to block Malaysians from viewing them.
Mr Fahmi refused to directly address the question and instead asserted that “honestly, if there was no freedom of speech, your account would not be on this platform any more. Not just on TikTok, but on all social media platforms”.
When asked about the posts by Datuk Radzi, TikTok responded to ST that “if we believe a request doesn’t violate our standards laid out in our Community Guidelines but violates applicable law, we may restrict the availability of the reported content in the country where it is considered to be illegal”.