Suspected Harmful Content Must Be Removed Briefly Under New Law

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PARLIAMENT | Online platform providers would be required to remove suspected harmful content on an interim basis until authorities complete their investigation under the Online Safety Bill, said Deputy Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) M Kulasegaran.
Speaking in the Dewan Rakyat today, Kulasegaran also said the cabinet will scrutinise the bill before it is tabled in the House in this session.
“This bill can address online financial crimes.
“The effort to draft this bill is a step to ensure that the online environment becomes a safe platform for Malaysians, especially children,” he added.
Kulasegaran was responding to a question from Lim Lip Eng (Harapan-Kepong) on how the Online Safety Bill can help combat online crimes.
Plugging gaps
Last month, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said the Online Safety Bill is a move to fix the gap or a “lacuna” in the country’s legal system as there is no precise definition for bullying crimes, including cyberbullying.
Among others, the proposed law is also aimed at addressing scams, online gambling, and sexual crimes against children - which are rapidly moving to social media.
A “lacuna in the law” refers to a situation where there is no applicable law in place.
Elaborating, Kulasegaran said the new bill would, among others, place responsibility on service providers to remove content deemed harmful.
“Under this bill, online financial crimes will be categorised as serious content and be given priority.
“Meaning, if a piece of content is reported as an online crime, then the platform provider must remove it on an interim basis until further investigation is carried out,” he said.
Online crimes
Earlier, Kulasegaran said the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC) received 131,036 calls from the public between October 2022 and last September reporting online fraud syndicates.
Of that, he said, 52,836 calls were from victims with a loss worth RM302.1 million.
On that note, Kulasegaran said a total of 103,557 bank accounts had been identified as mule accounts - used by online fraud syndicates to transfer victims' money.
To address online fraud, the government has amended the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Code by giving the police the power to seize money suspected of being involved in criminal activities held in any financial institution.
Kulasegaran explained that Section 116D was added to the Criminal Procedure Code to allow police officers of the rank of sergeant and above to seize or prohibit suspected transactions in any money held, or suspected of being held, in any payment instrument or any account in a financial institution.
“This amendment allows the police to not only seize but prevent other transactions from being made on that property to prevent the money of ‘online scam’ victims from being withdrawn from ‘mule accounts’,” he said. - Mkini

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