5,000 Sites Blocked by MCMC since 2015 for 'Various Offences'

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) blocked 5,044 websites for various offences under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 since 2015 until October this year says the New Straits Times.

Of the 5,000 sites, 4,277 are pornographic websites that were offensive while another 767 displayed elements of gamling, prostitution, fraud, piracy, counterfeit products, unregistered medicine, and others. Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Jailani Johari said that "MCMC blocks all the websites based on the application of the enforcement agencies such as the police; Health Ministry; Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Ministry; and other relevant agencies.

Perhaps of concern to the privacy of many of us, the MCMC also investigated 181 cases of social media and Internet abuse involving the spread of false information and contents through WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter under the same Act. While Twitter and Facebook have always been a social platform open to scrutiny, WhatsApp is supposed to be a means for private conversations.

In August this year, WhatsApp released an encryption for messages that means not even WhatsApp can intercept or view your messages. The moral of the story is, be nice on the Internet.