Saturday May 11, 2013

GE13: Police: Big drop in seditious postings

PETALING JAYA: Police have noticed a decline in seditious postings that fuelled racial sentiments on social media following the arrests of several controversial bloggers.

Federal Commercial Crimes Investigation Department Director Comm Datuk Syed Ismail Syed Azizan said racially-offensive Facebook and blog postings had decreased drastically since the arrests of King Jason, Milo Suam and Papagomo.

“The public knows we mean business,” he said.

“Although Milo Suam was released on police bail, we are still remanding Papagomo and King Jason until our investigations are concluded.”

Comm Syed Ismail said police had identified another Facebook user, who allegedly posted a racially-sensitive statement recently.

“We will be calling him in to give his statement. We do not want to jump to any conclusion,” he said, adding that he was aware of a number of Facebook users whose pages had been hacked previously.

He assured the public that if the suspect was found guilty, he would face stern action.

On May 7, police arrested two bloggers after reports were lodged against their postings over social media.

The reports alleged that the postings by Papagomo and King Jason were seditious and fuelled racial sentiments and propagated lies.

Papagomo, 33, was picked up at 3pm at a petrol station in Danau Kota, Setapak, while 38-year-old King Jason was detained at about noon in Kampung Jawa, Klang.

Comm Syed Ismail said King Jason was being investigated under Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act and Section 500 of the Penal Code, which carries up to a year's jail, RM50,000 fine ,or both, upon conviction.

Papagomo is being investigated under Section 233 of the Communication and Multimedia Act and Section 4(1) of Sedition Act.

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