MALAYSIA must stop asking TikTok secretly to remove posts or delete accounts of Malaysians, said a rights group today.

Malaysians Against Death Penalty and Torture (Madpet) said the government should never hide or act in ‘secret’ in violating people’s right to freedom of expression and opinion.

“Be open, inform the alleged perpetrators of the law they broke, and why the government is censoring or blocking these posts/accounts,” said Madpet representative Charles Hector in a statement.

He said this in response to a report that Malaysia made 1,862 demands to TikTok to take down content in the second half of last year, 5.5 times the number six months before.

Based on TikTok’s biannual transparency report, Malaysia made 2,202 take-down requests to TikTok in 2023, a more than 30-fold increase from 70 in 2022, and the most number of such requests from a country in the world.

Australia came in second with 651 requests. In Southeast Asia, Indonesia was in second place with 351, and Singapore third with 47.

Malaysia alone was responsible for over a quarter of the world’s removal demands in this period.

TikTok did not provide details of the content it was asked to restrict in Malaysia. It said it would only take down content that breached community guidelines or local laws.

A similar trend was also observed on Meta platforms, which owns Facebook and Instagram.

Hector said these figures were perturbing, and asked if the account holders were aware of the requests made by the government.

“Were the persons whose post were deleted or accounts closed even made aware that the government caused it and the reason it did so?

“Were the victims of these government’s violation of rights even accorded the right to be heard before the Malaysian government asked Tik Tok to remove user’s contents and/or delete accounts?

“Or did the government simply hide from the victims the fact that it was the government itself that was behind this ‘censorship’ and deletion of their Tik Tok accounts or posts?

“How many of these suspects responsible for these posts or accounts have even been investigated, charged in court, tried and convicted for crimes?

“If there are none or just a few, then the Malaysian government’s actions are deplorable, unjust and an abuse of power,” said Hector.

He added that such unjust and unacceptable acts, more so by the co-called ‘reformist’ Pakatan Harapan-led government of Anwar Ibrahim, should not have happened.

Hector, who is a lawyer, said such censorship or deletion of accounts should never be done without a court order.

He added that ex-parte orders and injunctions can speedily be obtained, and the suspected breaker of laws will also have the right and opportunity to challenge such interim orders in court. 

“It is best that our independent courts that determine what is against the law, not the government or even the prime minister, before ordering any censorship.

“The government should never alone, without a court order, censor or remove posts that are critical of government actions or positions, and Malaysia must always promote and defend freedom of expression, opinion and the press.”

He added that the government must actively get Tik Tok to uncensor posts and unblock affected accounts.

“Madpet also believes that these users are entitled to an apology and compensation for the temporary deprivation of rights,” he said.

He added that Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil must reveal immediately the number of government removal requests that were made to other service providers or App owners, like Facebook, G-Mail, Google, Whats App, Telegram, Instagram, Twitter and other similar apps in 2023 and 2024. – June 17, 2024.