KUALA LUMPUR – The Online Safety Bill 2024 has been passed in the Dewan Rakyat today, despite an attempt by the opposition to impede the proposed law by calling for a bloc vote.
In reading out the votes, Speaker Tan Sri Johari Abdul said 77 lawmakers had voted in favour of the bill while 55 MPs had voted against it.
A total of 90 lawmakers were absent from the august House.
Following the outcome of the vote, the bill was tabled for a third reading and passed by a voice vote.
In winding up debates on the bill before the bloc vote was called, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department for Law and Institutional Reforms Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said (Pengerang-BN) stressed that the law is intended to hold service providers responsible for ensuring a safe online environment.
Noting that the bill is part of the government’s move to regulate social media and messaging platforms through a licensing requirement, Azalina emphasised that the law will not be utilised against individuals as it instead targets companies providing online services.
Highlighting the high number of citizens using social media, Azalina said that the law will determine that when a company registers itself with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as a service provider, they will have to fulfil several obligations and undertake duties for the sake of online safety.
“If we in the Dewan want to busy ourselves with protecting these companies’ rights, I’m sorry, but the government believes that these companies have enough representatives on their side.
“They have enough money to hire lawyers and go to tribunals. Our focus now is on ensuring that companies who sell their products to our rakyat are held accountable and our children are protected,” she added.
Denying claims that the bill saw insufficient and rushed engagement sessions, Azalina said: “With these NGOs (non-governmental organisations), anything we do will not satisfy them.”
After Azalina’s winding-up speech, PAS lawmaker Ahmad Fadhli Shaari (Pasir Mas-PN) submitted for the bloc vote, with the support of 15 MPs, after his attempt to refer the bill to a parliamentary special select committee (PSSC) was denied by Dewan Rakyat deputy speaker Alice Lau (Lanang-PH).
Reading out a directive from Johari, Alice said that MPs are now required to provide a written notice a day in advance if they wish to refer a bill to a PSSC, although the Dewan Rakyat Standing Orders do not explicitly stipulate the order.
She also said that the MPs must specify in the notice which of the ten PSSCs should review the bill, or if they would like to propose the formation of a new committee to study the bill in question.
Earlier today, two NGOs had voiced concern over the bill’s vague definition of “harmful” content, alleging that it could potentially open the law to abuse and result in increased “lawful content” being removed from the internet.
In a statement, Article 19 and the Centre for Independent Journalism asserted that there could be a risk of the government exploiting or manipulating companies’ content moderation systems to censor unwanted speech. – December 11, 2024