Inspector-General of Police Khalid Abu Bakar’s admission today that the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) would intensify its montoring of social media due to Malaysians’ alleged abuse of online connectivity has led an NGO to express its fears of impending invasion of privacy.
“There are 14 million Facebookers in Malaysia and we are considered the worst in making comments and all. This shows that there is a low maturity among our people in handling social media,” Khalid said today, as quoted by The Malay Mail Online‘s Kamles Kumar.
The IGP cited Malaysian netizens’ “low maturity” as the pretext for the police’s policy on social media oversight extending to even reading messages and exchanges on instant messaging service WhatsApp.
The PDRM would be working hand-in-hand with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), he added.
In response, Persatuan Kesedaran Komuniti Selangor (Empower), an NGO advocating policies that strengthen justice and democracy, has categorised the PDRM’s social media monitoring a way for the Federal Government to “restrict and criminalise” Malaysians’ right to free expression, in the name of public order.
Empower president Janarthani Arumugam expressed his dismay at the IGP would push for the authority to essentially spy on Malaysians’ private conversations.
“It remains unclear how the police and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) intend to ‘monitor’ the expressions and activities of social media and instant messaging users in Malaysia, and how the data collected will be used,” he told The Rakyat Post‘s Rajina Dhillon.
“Facebook alone has 14 million users in the country. Questions as to the scale and scope of the monitoring, the methods (cyber-stalking, communication interception, malware etc), the storage and protection of data collected must be answered to the satisfaction of the people of Malaysia.”
