The partial block on news portal MalaysiaNow appears to have been lifted today.
A number of Celcom and Maxis users reported that they were unable to access the website starting yesterday evening.
For affected users, attempting to access the website would result in the web browser eventually displaying a “connection timed out” error.
“While we are relieved that the site is accessible again to Malaysians, we will not rest until we find the culprit behind this coincidence affecting several major internet service providers (ISPs).
“In the digital world, everything can be tracked and we will know soon,” said MalaysiaNow editor Abdar Rahman Koya, as reported by the news portal itself.
In the wake of the interrupted access, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil denied that any directive was given to block any media or news portal.
The portal at the time said its technical experts found neither unusual activities on their servers nor cyberattacks, while both affected ISPs reportedly told the portal no changes have been made on their end that could prevent users from accessing the website.
Malaysiakini’s own testing through Maxis’ network using a connectivity testing tool provided by Open Observatory of Network Interference suggests that the website was blocked on Maxis through DNS tampering.
DNS tampering is a common method used in Malaysia to censor “undesirable” online content including pornography, online gambling, and violent extremist sites.
This has also been used to block legitimate news sites in the past, including Malaysiakini’s election results site during the 14th general election in 2018. However, this redirected internet users to a government notice stating that the website had been blocked by law, rather than resulting in a “connection timed out” error.
Bersatu’s Tasek Gelugor MP Wan Saiful Wan Jan has since accused the government of curbing press freedom. - Mkini
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