Online critics face growing scrutiny as Malaysia rolls out controversial data collection project

KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian authorities are taking action against online critics of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration, with politicians and members of the public being called in for police questioning in recent weeks, or charged or muzzled.

This comes amid growing unease over the government’s Mobile Phone Data (MPD) project, which collects users’ mobile data from telcos, without an opt-out option.

Despite government assurances, critics have raised concerns over data privacy and security, fearing the information could be misused for surveillance.

Already, there appears to have been moves to silence online critics.

Most recently, two channels of messaging service Telegram

were blocked for allegedly harmful content that violated local laws

.

Whistle-blower watchdog Edisi Siasat (investigation edition), with 1.18 million members, and its companion channel Edisi Khas (special edition) are no longer accessible in Malaysia.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said on June 19 that it obtained a temporary court order against Telegram and two channels on the platform for allegedly disseminating content that violates the country’s laws.

Malaysia’s communications regulator said it sought the court order against Telegram following the platform’s “serious failure to address content that has been repeatedly reported to it”. The nature of the harmful content was not disclosed. The MCMC’s latest move echoes its 2015 block on Britain-based news blog Sarawak Report over 1MDB-related content.

And now, at least half a dozen individuals have been questioned by the police for social media posts critical of government decisions, including the data collection scheme.

“They (the authorities) have to stop the data collection. Why is there a need for large-scale monitoring?” said Malaysian Chinese Association Pahang Youth chief Wong Siew Mun, whose party is aligned with the Anwar-led unity government.

“This involves public interest and trust. We are trying to foster public discourse on this... We have a role to play in making sure the government is doing the right thing,” she told The Straits Times, adding that the data collection project should be tabled in Parliament for debate and scrutiny.

Ms Wong was questioned by the police on June 18 over a video she posted on TikTok, in which she questioned whether Malaysia is truly undergoing reforms or slipping into “dictatorship”, following the government’s decision to collect data from telcos without individuals’ consent.

In its pilot phase, the MPD project is expected to continue until 2026. The government and telcos stress that only “anonymous” data will be collected – meaning no names or ID numbers – and that the data is for official use and is protected by strong laws, though information leaks can and do happen. But experts warn that even when data is anonymous, it can sometimes be pieced back together to identify individuals.

“No personal data will be shared” and “we are not aiming to track the whereabouts of any individual”, MCMC deputy managing director Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin told the media on June 9.

The growing scrutiny and pushback against critics come at a time when Datuk Seri Anwar’s administration is facing growing public discontent, including over the rising cost of living, even as it faces growing tensions within the ruling coalition. All of which appear to contradict his Pakatan Harapan coalition’s longstanding commitment to free speech, undermining his reform agenda.

In fact, social media censorship in Malaysia

surged during Mr Anwar’s first year in power

, according to a TikTok report released in mid-2024. 

Currently, several individuals are being investigated by the authorities, including those questioning political developments within the ruling coalition.

Lawmaker and former economy minister Rafizi Ramli on June 9 highlighted the case of X user Amer Hamzah, whose wife filed a police report after their home was visited by officers from both the MCMC and the police.

Besides Mr Amer, Mr Rafizi also identified other social media accounts allegedly targeted for commenting on the recent internal elections of his Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), where Ms Nurul Izzah Anwar, the Prime Minister’s daughter, was

declared deputy president over Mr Rafizi

, who held the post previously.

“The content under investigation merely constitutes personal opinions about the PKR elections and does not violate any law. If it is indeed considered an offence, then it should be addressed through transparent and legitimate procedures, not through tactics that instil fear,” Mr Rafizi said in a statement.

The MCMC also summoned social media influencer Aliff Ahmad in April after he posted an offer on Facebook to investigate Ms Nurul Izzah’s background using his platform, Scrut Analytica, if the post received 20,000 shares.

Meanwhile, online seller Norizan Yahaya, 62, was charged on June 13 with posting offensive content regarding the authorities’ investigation into the GISB sect on YouTube in September 2024. He was charged under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which carries a maximum fine of RM50,000 (S$15,100), imprisonment of up to one year, or both.

In January, Malaysia

introduced a new social media law

requiring social media platforms and messaging services with more than eight million users in Malaysia to obtain a licence or face legal action.

In pushing for the licensing of social media platforms, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil had said the measure was needed to combat the spread of online crimes, including scams, gambling and child pornography.

The minister has also sought to allay fears among the public over the data collection scheme.

“The telcos will not be sharing any data containing personal information. Only anonymised data will be (shared), and it will be processed as carefully as possible by the telcos,” he was quoted as saying by the Free Malaysia Today news website on June 8.

In addition, the Department of Statistics Malaysia posted on X on June 10 that the data collected would be subject to appropriate safeguards.

But the sceptics are not buying it.

“There is no such thing as anonymised,” X user Thevesh posted on June 7, adding that such data could be re-identified when combined with other information and thus “very prone to abuse”.

Sensitive behavioural data involving one’s health, lifestyle or religious matters could easily be uncovered, noted Mr Woon King Chai, director at Malaysian think-tank Institute of Strategic Analysis and Policy Research.

“A user who connects to a transmitter in Taman Tun Dr Ismail every weekday at 7.20am and another in Putrajaya at 8.45am reveals a consistent home-to-work pattern,” he said, in a post on the Malay Mail’s news website on June 17.

He also expressed concerns about the growing intolerance of free speech, saying that when individuals who publicly questioned the MPD project are “subjected to investigations and enforcement action”, this fuels fears that the initiative is “less about planning and more about control”.