Malaysia's Code of Conduct for the Internet

A simple open response to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) in relation to the Public Consultation on the draft Code of Conduct (Best Practice) for Internet Messaging Service Providers and Social Media Service Providers

This site is intended to reach MCMC along with the Malaysian public to think again or better said in Malay, 'fikir balik' the reason behind MCMC's decision to back down on the DNS redirection plan and the current effort to implement a Code of Conduct through their latest announcement

On 22^nd October 2024, MCMC invited members of the public including Service Providers, industry players, and interested parties to provide their feedback and comments on the draft Code of Conduct (Best Practice).

To keep it simple, we'll dive directly into the queries on this draft Code of Conduct

Scope and Application

Item 3.2 tries to explain the definition of Harmful Content

# For the purposes of this Code of Conduct:
# Harmful content refers to content that is in violation of the CMA #1998 and/or any other relevant Malaysian laws which includes, among others:
# (i)     Child Sexual Abuse Material (“CSAM”).
# (ii)    Non-consensual sharing of intimate content.
# (iii)   Content related to online financial scams such as phishing, romance scams, investment scams, and other deceptive schemes.
# (iv)    Content that is used to bully.
# (v)     Content that can incite violence, extremism and/or terrorism.
# (vi)    Content that is likely to induce a child to cause physical and/or psychological harm to themselves.
# (vii)   Content that incites hate speech.
# (viii)  Content related to the sale of illegal drugs.
# (ix)    Manipulated media, such as deepfakes and/or doctored images that can cause harm to individuals or society.

The queries are as below:

# (ii) Non-consensual sharing of intimate content

How do we verify consent & what is intimate content ?

If two people consents to record, share or store intimate content, can they withdraw the consent in the future? If yes, what is the allowed duration where one can withdraw consent?

Example: Adam takes a picture while kissing Sarah and proceeds to share it on social media with the implied consent of Sarah. Three months later Sarah decides that she does not want that picture floating on social media and proceeds to file a complaint that Adam has shared intimate content without her consent.

Did Adam breach the Code of Conduct?

# "(iv) Content that is used to bully"

How do we define `bully` or specifically `cyber bully`?:

What determines if an act is considered bullying or the complainant is simply offended?

Example: Minister M. Kulasegaran once said that he was indirectly cyber bullied because there was a false accusation on social media against him

The young woman in the video was my wife

Can the minister file a complaint against all those who commented and offended his wife?

# "(v)  Content that incites hate speech."

Is there a definition for hate speech?

Wikipedia states that hate speech is a term with varied meaning and has no single, consistent definition. If the term isn't consistent, how will the potential perpetrator be aware of the delineation between an opinion and hate speech?

Example: Sarah loves Salmon and she finds out there's going to be a sales tax imposed next year on premium imported goods like Salmon. She proceeds to rant on social media mentioning how she detest the current prime minister for imposing more tax and reducing subsidies.

Is Sarah allowed to share her thoughts or is she inciting hate speech among her friends and followers on social media?

If these simple questions and examples above tickled your mind to Fikir Balik, do shoot an email to The Chairman of MCMC as stated in their announcement with your feedbacks and comments to [email protected] before 5:00 PM on 5^th November 2024.

This is an open invitation to the public by MCMC, therefore you don't need to be a lawyer, doctor or an IT specialist that is well versed in this topic to ask basic questions in your own words. If you have examples or logic that can challenge the definitions listed as Harmful Content in the draft Code of Conduct document, just send an email to them.

Here are the documents for your reference