Fuel on the fire

The height of this frenzy was probably displayed during the KK Super Mart socks controversy.

The nasty remarks included shocking calls inciting racial discontent and even the elimination of a particular race.

Unfortunately, in Malaysia, most social media readers confine themselves to platforms in their preferred languages.

Many of us live in our own cocoon, oblivious to everyone’s sentiments.

Basically, the predominantly Malay audience would only read Bahasa Malaysia portals and assume that their engagements are only followed by their own community.

The same can be said about Chinese platforms, too, including chat groups. Chinese readers instinctively think that they can speak about certain issues and remain unaware that their words could hurt the feelings of other races.

Even in the comments section of English medium portals, hostile views are right there in the public domain.

The comments section is essential given the eyeballs it draws, but no responsible publisher can moderate this free-for-all forum 24/7.

Some publishers have pulled the plug on it simply because it has been routinely abused.

Freedom of speech doesn’t amount to freedom to defame, slander or worse, instigate racial disharmony.

If a reader posts a racist comment at 3am and it’s automatically uploaded, which editor would be able to catch it and have it removed immediately?

In May 2021, the Federal Court ruled that Malaysiakini was guilty of contempt of court over the comments of five readers.

The country’s highest court said the comments posted by these readers were deemed offensive to the judiciary and fined the online news organisation RM500,000 and ruled that Malaysiakini is fully accountable for its website, including reader comments.

The judges said the case was a reminder to the public not to attack the judiciary online, and that the fine reflected the gravity of the offence.

Hurtful remarks and seditious comments in any language bring no benefit to our beloved country. There’s no reason to defend or justify retaining vile content in the name of freedom of expression. Of course, the authorities must be mindful that their actions shouldn’t be imposed on fair criticisms either.

Political operatives: Malaysian authorities have found that the dark side of social media has birthed individuals paid to post desired narratives in the comments sections. — 123rf

Speaking of which, criticising politicians is par for the course and most of them accept it. They are expected to be resilient, so if they can’t stand the heat, then they should avoid the flame of this game.

I concur with the populist view that it’s unnecessary for our regulators to be ruffled by some of the criticism, especially from unknown figures with near non-existent followers.

Then there are certain personalities recognised for their denunciation. This is simply part and parcel of a democracy.

The nature of social media is that it should be taken with a pinch of salt. If these people are ignored, their messages are quickly forgotten. If it must be countered, then they should do it persuasively.

But there are many critics who cowardly hide behind anonymity despite their bravado on accountability and transparency. Yet, they fear revealing themselves, and are highly creative with their fictitious content.

Malaysian authorities have found that the dark side of social media has birthed individuals, believed to be paid political operatives using multiple accounts, who post desired narratives in the comments sections.

These comments can run into thousands of entries to push a certain agenda to influence the minds of readers.

Social media posts have influenced many people, even if we’re clueless to who these so-called Netizens are, or if they’re even real.

Despite having a population of only 33 million, Malaysia ranked 10th in the world for online engagement in 2023 with an Internet penetration rate of 96.8%.

It was reported that there were about 30.25 million social media users in 2022, which was 91.7% of Malaysia’s total population.

The Commission Report said that “if we consider just the adult population, we can see social media usage approaching full saturation levels at 99.8 per cent” and as early as 2011, Malaysian Facebook users had the most active friend networks in the world with an average of 233 friends.

Statista.com said Malaysia has the third highest social media penetration rate in South-East Asia and ranked third among the highest average daily time spent on social media with around two and half hours invested on various platforms.

Insider Monkey rated Malaysia among 25 countries with the most TikTok users in 2023.

It placed Malaysia at the No 18 spot with 19.3 million users with the demographic comprising Gen Z (ages 19-25) at 35.61%, closely followed by Millennials (ages 26-32) constituting around 29% of the user base.

Last week, it was reported that in 2023, Tik Tok removed content mentioned in half of the government’s requests based on violations of Malaysian laws. There were 2,200 government requests to remove about 6,000 pieces of content.

The next highest came from Australia with 651 submissions, but none of the commentators tied it with press freedom in their reports or asked what this content comprised to annoy Aussies. Do Australians have racial, religious or royalty issues or scam concerns to contend with like Malaysia?

These news reports put Malaysia in a bad light as it gave the impression that the Malaysian regulator or government is intolerant of criticism or grappling with the inability to handle freedom of expression,

The numbers were based on Tik Tok’s bi-annual “Government Removal Requests Report” for 2023.

Unfortunately, perception is everything. It will be good if the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) provides details and explanations for its decisions.

I was told that this year, almost 54% of the online content requested for removal across all platforms were related to online gambling with 19% linked to online scams, 15% fake news, 6% on the 3Rs (race, religion, royalty) and 5% on harassment.

For 2023, the figures were almost identical with 47% online gambling, online scams 18%, fake news 18%, 3R issues 6%, and harassment 6%.

So, from the overall data, online gambling and scams account for almost 70% of the content removed.

Without this background info, it would seem like the MCMC only removed political content. In Malaysia, though, everything seems to be about politics.

But it has reached a nadir where many of these inflammatory postings have crossed the red line. Nothing is sacred anymore and despite the repeated warnings against content relating to the 3Rs, it’s difficult to ignore the perceived reluctance to act against certain personalities.

Malaysians can certainly identify the people who continuously exploit race and religion in their social media posts.

If the authorities don’t punish these recalcitrants, then we’re sending the wrong message to the country.

Open condemnation of other religions or deceitfully trying to convert minors of other faiths are clearly a violation of existing laws.

Malaysia is a uniquely multi-racial and multi-religious nation with a robust political and social media set up with a no-holds barred political obsession driven by many Malaysians, former Malaysians who have migrated as well as foreigners who really have no business telling us how to run our country.