KUALA LUMPUR: The Online Safety Bill which seeks to regulate harmful content was tabled for first reading in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday (Dec 9).
The Bill, tabled by Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department’s (Law and Institutional Reforms) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, calls for the setting up of an online safety committee and an appeals tribunal.
It also covers the duties of licensed service providers and content application service providers; reporting of harmful content; and enforcement.
"Harmful content" here refers to content on child sexual abuse material; financial fraud; obscene content including content that may give rise to disgust due to lewd depictions that offend decency and modesty; and indecent content that is profane in nature, improper and against generally accepted behaviour or culture.
Other material considered harmful under the Bill includes causing harassment, distress, fear, or alarm using threatening, abusive, or insulting words or actions; any incitement to violence or terrorism; communication or act; inducing a child to inflict self-harm; promoting feelings of ill will or hostility among the public or disturbing public tranquillity; and promoting the use or sale of dangerous drugs.
The proposed law seeks to enhance online safety in Malaysia by regulating such content, and outlining the duties and obligations of service providers.
“The proposed Act which is applicable to the application service providers, content application service providers and network service providers licensed under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and to be implemented and enforced by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission aims to reduce harmful content available online and mitigate its potential detrimental effects,” the Bill read.
It only applies to applications and content applications that use internet services.
Private messaging features on any application or content application service will not be covered by this proposed law.
An online safety committee is proposed with a chairman and deputy chairman as well as representatives from the Home Ministry, Communications Ministry, Education Ministry and Women, Family and Community Development Ministry; the police; National Security Council; and chief children's commissioner.
Representatives from service providers; the differently-abled community; and those with the necessary knowledge and expertise will also be included.
The committee's duties include determining the types of harmful content; setting priorities for curbing such content; analysing the risk such material poses; and adopting best practices in holding service providers accountable.
The proposed appeals tribunal, on the other hand, will be empowered to review any written instructions and directives from the MCMC on non-compliance with the law's provisions.
This tribunal will be chaired by a High Court judge with two other members knowledgeable in communications and multimedia, engineering, law, economics, commerce, or public administration.
In terms of enforcement, the Bill proposes to authorise officers to investigate non-compliance matters and, if a Magistrate allows, to execute search and seizure warrants on premises or individuals.
It is proposed that these warrants cover books, content accounts, documents, computer data, signboards, brochures and other printed material, as well as equipment and devices believed to be linked to any breach of the online safety law.
“An authorised officer making a search on a person under subsection (3) may seize, or take possession of, and place in safe custody all things, other than the necessary clothing, found upon the person, and any other things, for which there is reason to believe that they are the instruments or evidence of the crime, and in so far as the search is for the investigation of an offence all such things may be detained until the discharge or acquittal of the person,” the Bill reads.
“Whenever it is necessary to cause a woman to be searched, the search shall be made by another woman with strict regard to decency,” it adds.
