THE Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it had to report the use of offensive hashtags to Twitter to uphold Malaysia’s laws.

The internet regulator said while it respects Twitter users, it had a responsibility to ensure compliance with the law. 

“It is MCMC’s responsibility to ensure compliance with section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998 for the country’s interest,” the regulator told The Malaysian Insight in a brief statement.

“Therefore, MCMC had taken action by reporting the use of a few offensive hashtags to Twitter.”

Several Twitter users today claimed that MCMC had tried to get Twitter to take down their tweets that were critical of the government’s handling of the recent floods.

Some took to Twitter to share a screenshot of an email correspondence from Twitter’s legal team to show MCMC’s complaints to the social media company.

However, Twitter did not take any action against the tweets despite the regulator’s request.

“In the interest of transparency, we are writing to inform you that Twitter has received a request from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission regarding your Twitter account that claims the following content violates the law(s) of Malaysia,” Twitter legal’s email read, referring to the links of the tweets.

“We have not taken any action on the reported content at this time as a result of this request,” it added.

Twitter said that as it strongly believed in defending and respecting users, it was notifying users upon receiving such requests from regulators.

A user called @cheryltanxr said she received a warning that her tweets had violated the country’s laws.

“Some of you may be wondering where my tweet about one of the shelters discriminating (against) foreigners went. Just want to update here that I’ve received a warning from Twitter and MCMC asking me to remove my tweet as I’ve violated Malaysian laws,” she tweeted.

Meanwhile, @BadBoy2662 said his tweets targeted by MCMC were those critical of Women, Family and Community Development Minister Rina Mohd Harun and Entrepreneur Development and Cooperatives Minister Noh Omar.

The government has come under fire by the public for a lack of coordination among agencies to aid flood victims, as well as the actions of some ministers such as Rina who were accused of putting on a show when visiting flood-stricken areas. – December 23, 2021.