14 DAY TRIAL // The Malaysian government is considering taking yet another censorship measure in a desire to keep people away from social media. The government has announced that it is evaluating a ban on Facebook following a series of incidents that are considered abusive on the network.
Critics of the idea consider the measure won’t actually be put into practice because there will be a strong opposition to it, ZDNet reports.
“If the people believe that Facebook should be closed, we are prepared to look into the matter,” said Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, Minister for Communications and Multimedia. The government will now seek public views on the issue, although there have apparently already been about 2,000 complains about abuse on the website.
Even the minister admitted, however, that banning Facebook would be a radical step and it would also be somewhat impossible to shut down access to the network for all 15 million users. Furthermore, the fact that there have only been 2,000 complaints warrants an investigation, but not a ban that would affect such a large number of people.
“The complaints received were only around 2,000. Should we completely close it down because of that? We need to relook this,” the minister admitted.
The opposition party, DAP, threatened to organize nationwide protests to oppose any effort to block Facebook, saying that such a decision would violate the right to freedom of expression and would be completely opposite to the government’s pledge to not censor the Internet. In fact, keeping the Internet free is part of the 1996 Bill of Guarantees created to attract tech investments from foreign nations.
DAP called banning Facebook a “primitive proposal” that would deny citizens the right to express their views on social media. The most affected ones would be young people, the party said.
The party went as far as to say that if Malaysia bans Facebook, they’d join the likes of North Korea, Cuba, Iran, and China, which isn’t something citizens would like, especially if they cherish freedom of expression.
“We would like to remind Putrajaya of the Multimedia Super Corridors Bill of Guarantees No.7 that promises no internet censorship. Since it has already promised no Internet censorship, then why waste time to even think and talk about blocking Facebook?” said DAP Social Media Strategist and State Assemblywoman for Damansara Utama, Yeo Bee Yin, reports The Malaysian Insider.
That being said, it seems unlikely that such a ban would actually be put in practice.