The news portal MalaysiaNow is currently inaccessible to some users and is likely being blocked by certain Malaysian internet service providers (ISPs).
For the affected users, attempting to access the website would not yield any response. The user’s web browser will eventually give up waiting and display a “connection timed out” error instead.
According to MalaysiaNow editor Abdar Rahman Koya, the website has been inaccessible at least to Celcom and Maxis users since yesterday evening.
It 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.
“We continue to see readers from outside of Malaysia, but our normal local readership has been almost halved. We suspect that they are Celcom and Maxis users who cannot access the site.
“With the use of virtual private networks (VPN), which allows access to blocked websites, we find that users have no problem reaching MalaysiaNow.
“This leaves us with the possibility of an unlawful attempt to block our website,” Rahman said in a statement today, which also detailed methods to circumvent the alleged blockade.
Tests point to ‘DNS tampering’
Meanwhile, Malaysiakini’s own testing through Maxis’ network using a connectivity testing tool provided by Open Observatory of Network Interference suggests that the website is 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.
A DNS (domain name service) is akin to an address book of the internet; it helps to direct computers and other devices to servers that host the websites they are looking for.
Tampering with the DNS can result in the computer being misdirected elsewhere on the internet.
This can be circumvented by changing the computer’s or its router’s DNS settings to use a different DNS that is not misdirecting traffic, or by using a VPN.
In this case, the affected DNS is redirecting users to the address 175.139.142.25, instead of one of MalaysiaNow’s several internet protocol addresses.
The address 175.139.142.25 is previously used to serve a government notice stating that a website has been blocked, but this function currently appears to be down.
Editor rues ‘unhelpful’ response
Malaysiakini has contacted Communications and Multimedia Minister Fahmi Fadzil for comment and is awaiting a response.
Meanwhile, Rahman claimed that Fahmi’s aide told the portal that MalaysiaNow is not being blocked but they are waiting for a report by the Communications and Multimedia Commission, which is empowered to block undesirable online content.
“The response is not helpful,” he said, adding that MalaysiaNow would lodge a report to relevant authorities soon.
In an immediate response, the media group Gerakan Media Merdeka (Geramm) said it is concerned by reports of blocked access to MalaysiaNow’s website.
“Any such move, if proven true, would be an indirect form of government censorship on a news outlet and a blatant breach of press freedom,” it said. - Mkini
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