SITI Kasim has reminded the Madani government that it is only giving the impression that the government of the day is “failing very badly” if it continues to instruct social media platforms to pull down posts that are “constructively critical”.
Pulling a string from frustration over TikTok having removed some of her video clips, the human rights activist and lawyer contended that there must be freedom to dissent despite the Madani government disagreeing with what is spoken or feeling hurtful with the content.
“With so many social media platforms around, how are you going to shut our mouth?” she ranted in a YouTube video.
“So many people are critical of me yet I allow them to let their voices heard unless of course they personally attack or insult me following which I shall drop them.”
The Orang Asli advocate went on to express disappointment with Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil whom she described as having become “a lapd*g” of the Madani government.
“You used to be an activist but I don’t think you follow your conscience any longer … Seriously, whatever way you try, you are unable to stop people from expressing their views on the (Madani) government,” lamented Siti Kasim.
She was commenting on her video clips critical of the Madani government that have been removed by TikTok purportedly at the instruction of the Communications Ministry for being deemed ‘inflammatory’.
One is her segment during the media conference on voices of non-Muslins organised by the Global Human Rights Federation (GHRF) which has garnered 136,000 views and another entitled “What’s Wrong with Our Government” which has attracted 190,000 viewers.
“The other is pertaining to PMX which I can hardly remember but the funniest is that they even brought down a video on my videos that have been removed by social media platforms.”
Editor’s Note: TikTok recorded 2,606 requests from the Malaysian government to remove or restrict content on its platform in 1H 2024, the highest among all governments in the period.
According to its latest report on government removal requests, this marks an increase of 39.96% from 1,862 requests to the social media platform in 2H 2023, and more than seven times compared with 340 similar requests in 1H 2023.
On a more serious note, Siti Kasim agreed that while there is obviously a line in freedom of expression, all her affected videos seemed to be those “critical of the government or religious zealots whereby my concerns were not misplaced”.
“No doubt it hurts their ears or put them in bad lights but I’m just putting forth an opinion to build a progressive Malaysia, not something violent or negative,” she asserted.
“In fact, if I recall correctly, I’ve more social media posts removed during the (28-month) Madani administration than any of the prior governments no matter if they performed or otherwise.
“On my part, I’ll not be deterred from speaking up … they can try whatever they want or however they want.” – Focus Malaysia
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