Stop ‘secretly’ asking TikTok to remove content, govt told

A rights group has slammed the government for “secretly”, or otherwise, requesting TikTok to remove posts and delete accounts.

Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) spokesperson Charles Hector said the group was perturbed to find out that the government had been violating the people’s right to freedom of expression.

“Madpet calls for an end to ‘secret’ censoring or blocking of accounts through requests to service providers or app owners.

“If laws are broken, then the government must act transparently, and the alleged suspect must be informed of the grounds, and given the right to be heard,” he said in a statement today.

This comes after Putrajaya topped the list of governments asking TikTok to remove content in 2023.

According to TikTok’s bi-annual “Government Removal Requests Report” released on June 7, the Malaysian government requested 2,202 content takedowns. Most of the requests - 1,862 of the total –were made from July to December 2023.

Hector then questioned how many suspects responsible for the taken down posts or accounts have even been investigated, charged in court, tried and convicted for crimes.

“If there are none or just a few, then the government’s actions are deplorable, unjust and an abuse of power.

“Were the victims of this violation of rights even accorded the right to be heard before the government asked TikTok to remove the users’ content and/or delete their accounts?

“Or did the government ‘simply hide’ from the victims the fact that it was the government itself that was behind this ‘censorship’ and the removal of their TikTok accounts and posts?” he queried.

PN did better in defending free speech

Quoting data from TikTok‘s report, Hector said the number of content removal requests in 2023 was 29 times higher than the 75 requests made in 2022 when Perikatan Nasional was still in power.

“This makes one wonder whether the previous PN government, before the current government came into power in November 2022, was so much better in terms of promoting and defending our right to freedom of expression.”

He also expressed disappointment that the state of human rights seemed to be declining since Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim took office.

He called for an amendment of laws that would abolish arbitrary government or ministry actions that may violate human rights.

“It is safer that a court order is required before any acts of censorship or blocking of accounts are done. The victim’s right to be informed and heard must be respected.”

On May 26, lawyer Shamsher Singh Thind prodded Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh about her commitment to open tenders after the controversy over Asia Mobiliti - a firm co-owned by the latter’s husband.

Then on June 4, he said his Facebook post about the matter had been blocked. A notice from Meta he shared showed that it was due to a request by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Shamsher then questioned whether Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching, who is Yeoh’s colleague in DAP, had a hand in the matter.

The MCMC in turn claimed that Shamsher’s post had violated Meta’s community standards, a claim that the lawyer said was untrue. - Mkini