Malaysian authorities have forced political satirist Fahmi Reza to surrender the login details to his Twitter account as part of investigations linked to the Spotify playlist that shamed the queen.
The 44-year-old announced this last night after saying that he had been ordered to give up his email and password to the authorities. He called on followers on the Twitter-verified @Kuasasiswa account to follow him via his @FahmiRezaKL back up account instead.
“ANNOUNCEMENT: This Twitter account @kuasasiswa will be seized by the police and MCMC under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act for investigation purposes and gathering evidence. Follow my back-up account @fahmirezaKL,” he wrote, referring to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.
His official Twitter profile, which has 95,000 followers, is still up this morning.
Fahmi was recently arrested after uploading a playlist of songs containing the word “Jealousy” in them, mocking Queen Azizah Aminah Maimunah Iskandariah’s comment on social media in response to those asking about her vaccination.
Fahmi also urged his followers to pressure Malaysia’s Minister of Communications and Multimedia Saifuddin Abdullah and his deputy Zahidi Zainul Abidin to expedite the investigation process so that he can retrieve his account quickly.
He is due to meet with the police tomorrow over two more satirical artworks featuring a fictional university logo and a vampire caricature of Health Minister Adham Baba.
Since the digital artist had his equipment, including his laptop, seized during the arrest, Fahmi has been creating works by hand.
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