PETALING JAYA: To better address future cyberbullying cases, laws have to be amended and social media platforms have to be regulated to keep up with the constantly evolving digital trends, says cybersecurity and multimedia laws expert Derek Fernandez.
According to Fernandez, present penalties under the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 are not adequate to punish bullies who digitally harass people and therefore, amendments are necessary to substantially enhance its penalties.
He said the Penal Code should be amended to ensure that cyberbullying would be addressed the same as physical bullying.
“This will reduce the gap between offences being committed in the virtual world and in the non-virtual one,” he said.
Fernandez said the Penal Code was amended last year to include a newly-introduced Section 507A to make stalking a crime.
“So, a general amendment can also be made to include online conduct that causes an offence under the Penal Code, where such conduct can be committed through digital communication.
“This can be done together with the much-needed amendments to the CMA to provide a measure of regulatory protection against such serious threats and abuse of online facilities,” he said.
At the same time, Fernandez said it was important that over-the-top (OTT) platforms that profited from hosting social media content, to be under a legal duty to take immediate, effective and proactive definable steps to prevent or combat cyberbullying and scams.
“We have seen how in extreme cases, cyberbullying can cause self-harm, mental or physical injury and death.
“It is essential that all OTT platforms be legally regulated so that they are under a legal obligation to take action promptly and effectively against persons whom they allow on their platforms – through whom they profit from the monetisation of their data – from harming, bullying and cheating other users of the platform and members of the public.
“This is especially so when public complaints to them about someone feeling bullied, are ignored or dismissed or not attended to promptly,” said Fernandez.
He said OTT platforms should have better measures to identify and ban cyberbullies from opening fresh accounts to continue bullying victims after being blocked or removed.
“Regulating these platforms through legal licensing or clear laws and legal liability will ensure Malaysian online users have the same legal protection as those in the European Union, the United States and several other countries.
“This in turn will lead to more resources being invested by those who profit the most from these platforms, to seriously combat cyberbullying and other online harms,” he said.
Lawyer Rajesh Nagarajan said provisions under Section 507 of the Penal Code penalised those who harass others with an intention to cause distress, fear or alarm to another person’s safety.
“Under Section 507A, whoever repeatedly commits any act of harassment, intending to cause or knowing that it is likely to cause distress, fear or alarm to a person for his or her safety, commits the offence of stalking.
“Penalties under Section 507A of the Penal Code include imprisonment for a term that may be extended to three years, or a fine, or both.
“It is clear that the provisions are worded very widely to capture any form of harassment and as such, cyberstalking and online harassment would be covered too,” added Rajesh.
Prof Dr Mohamed Ridza Wahiddin, founder and patron of International Islamic University Malaysia’s Centre of Excellence for Cyber Security, said the current trends of cybersecurity threats included social engineering, cloud vulnerabilities, third party exposure, ransomware and attacks on internet of things (IoT) devices.
According to him, future proofing cybersecurity entails keeping up with a variety of new threats, legislation, conducting assurance reviews, and acknowledging the complexity of the IT reality.
“Clearly, in order to ensure our cybersecurity laws are future-proof, all the above factors should be taken into account.
“Furthermore, AI is only one of the many IT tools used for cyberthreats,” he added.
