KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Bukit Aman have “their own means” to find out the identity of Malaysians sharing pornography through the encrypted internet application Telegram, national police chief Tan Sri Khalid Abu Bakar said today.
The Inspector-General of Police said investigations are underway into the network of Malaysians using Telegram to share sexually explicit videos and pictures of women and very young children after Malay Mail Online highlighted the issue last week.
“We are investigating it… we are investigating it. We have other means, we have other means,” Khalid said.
However, he declined to specify the measures the police are using to crack down on the insidious peddling of sexual content, including child porn, in the country.
Khalid also declined to state if the police would go to court to seek an order to force Telegram to surrender the details owing to its privacy policy when asked and reiterated that the police had their own ways to obtain information.
Tech experts previously interviewed by Malay Mail Online on the issue said the authorities can only take action against anonymous local Telegram users who share child pornography and rape videos if the messaging app released their information.
One tech expert also said that even if Telegram were to block some porn groups or channels in Malaysia, it would be very easy to create new ones.
Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak told Malay Mail Online that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has been instructed to contact Telegram to remove all local channels or groups which share or upload videos of child pornography.
