Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak has defended the government’s decision to block online news portals before starting investigations. The minister said that the procedure applied to news portals is the same as the one used to deal with pornographic or extremist content.
Salleh explained that the blocks have to be put in place early as doing otherwise may leave undesirable content accessible to the public. “If we wait for them to be charged before acting, there will be a lot of websites with pornographic content that we need to act on. If it violates the law, of course the relevant authorities will take the necessary actions,” he said while addressing the Dewan Rakyat earlier today.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has blocked 52 websites since January, bringing the total to 399 sites. A majority of these sites are blocked for gambling, cheating and prostitution, contain pornographic content, put up in bad taste or share fake news.
[Source: The Malay Mail Online]
