PARLIAMENT | The government has no plans to ban the popular video-sharing app TikTok, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
He was responding to a supplementary question by Onn Abu Bakar (Harapan-Batu Pahat) who asked if Putrajaya would follow in the footsteps of other countries and pull the plug on TikTok because it is “harmful”.
“At this time, the government has no intention of closing any social media platforms.
“We see that some issues have been raised, we hope for better cooperation (with the operators of these platforms) and appropriate laws which correspond with the current requirements,” he told the Dewan Rakyat today.
On the same note, Fahmi said that several countries have imposed a ban or restricted TikTok such as India and China. The latter had replaced it with a similar platform called Douyin.
It should be noted that Fahmi may have made an error in his statement to the Dewan Rakyat as Douyin was set up by ByteDance in China first while TikTok was created by the same company for the international market.
The two apps, while sharing similarities, operate and function separately from each other and both are still owned by ByteDance.
Addressing online security
The minister said several measures are being considered to address “online security” concerning children and pornographic material in a more effective manner.
“This includes the selling of inappropriate items (online),” he added.
Fahmi also described the authorities battling online pornographic material as similar to a “cat and mouse” scenario.
“Kita tutup sini dia muncul sana (we close one, it appears somewhere else),” he said.
Stressing that greater cooperation with the platform providers is required, Fahmi pointed out that one of the problems faced by the police over accounts that spread pornographic material is from the aspect of “profiling”.
Fahmi was responding to Kamal Ashaari (PN-Kuala Krai) who asked about the steps implemented to curb the sale of pornographic material on applications such as Telegram and X, which also includes school students.
He revealed that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has investigated a total of 38 cases related to pornographic content from Jan 1, 2023, to March 1, 2024, under Section 23 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
“Of this, 18 cases are still under investigation, warning notices were sent in two cases whereas 18 others were classified as no further action or no offence stated where the material has been deleted or removed,” he added. - Mkini
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.