BANGI, July 13 — Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil today said the government is planning to expedite enacting laws regarding cyberbullying to combat the growing problem.
During a town hall session with various university students at the first Global Conference of Communication, Culture & Contemporary Media (Glocom 2023) here, Fahmi said authorities are looking at related laws in other countries to draft the Act.
“We are looking at the laws in other countries relating to cyberbullying and see which aspects are appropriate for our country. I had a meeting about this two days ago, and we are planning to expedite the process to enact the law.
“It usually takes about two to three years to enact a new law such as the sexual harassment Act but we are to enact this as soon as possible,” he said replying to a question from a local university student.
Cyberbullying refers to any deliberate action by individuals or entities through digital communication with the intent to cause anxiety, physical, psychological, economic, academic harm to the victim.
These include threats to spread videos, fake profiles, harassing messages, fake news or slander and insulting comments.
The Lembah Pantai MP said the cyberbullying law is important as the number of social media users in Malaysia has increased.
On August 14, 2021, Malaysia Cybersecurity Outreach and Capacity Building senior vice-president, Mustaffa Ahmad said the then government is drafting laws specifically on cyberbullying.
Mustaffa said with the specific laws, the prosecution process for cyberbullying would no longer be based on other acts, including Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988 (Improper use of network facilities) as is being practised currently. What the latter entails remains the subject of heated debate until this day but PAS leaders alleged the DAP, through its allies in PH, are secretly fighting to trivialise Islam’s role in governance.
DAP leaders have repeatedly denied it, calling the allegation incendiary and an attempt to manipulate Malay insecurity.
