KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) was not involved in the blocking of political satirist and graphic artist Fahmi Reza’s TikTok account recently, said Fahmi Fadzil.
The communications minister confirmed that the artist’s previous live stream on the social media platform was blocked due to certain factors detected by TikTok’s artificial intelligence (AI) moderator.
“What happened to Fahmi Reza (when) his TikTok live stream was blocked is due to TikTok’s AI – not MCMC, not his ‘haters’, not anyone else,” the minister said when speaking on Buletin TV3’s podcast show today.
“I was told by TikTok that…it did not receive any complaints from the public or MCMC. So why am I being blamed?
“It’s normal for people to quickly reach their own conclusions, but it’s not right (to fault the minister).”
On December 16, Fahmi Reza claimed in an X post that his TikTok account was permanently banned after the live stream of his lecture on student power at the Universiti Malaya campus was blocked.
However, the account was later found to be back online later that day. It remains unclear what policy stipulations Fahmi Reza had allegedly contravened to warrant a ban.
Fahmi Reza is currently being probed by Bukit Aman over his graphic calling newly-appointed Sabah governor Tun Musa Aman, who previously faced now-dropped corruption charges, the state’s “number one corruptor”.
The investigation against the artist is being conducted under Section 4(1) of the Sedition Act 1948 on acts with a sedition tendency, Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998 relating to the misuse of network facilities and Section 504 of the Penal Code on intentional insult that provokes the breaking of public peace.
In the podcast, the minister also highlighted that amendments were made to the CMA, seeking to decriminalise satire and parody, among others, which were approved by the Dewan Rakyat on December 9 and by the Senate on December 16.
Fahmi also quoted Bangi MP Syahredzan Johan, who had defended a client on the matter.
“What my (Syahredzan’s) client said was satire, parody, and it is not an offence,” Fahmi said, quoting Syahredzan. However, he added that the court still ruled it as an offence under the law.
Syahredzan has since called for a moratorium on investigations and charges related to satires and parodies pending the enforcement of the amendments.
Meanwhile, on a separate matter, Fahmi Fadzil said today that his ministry is seeing positive progress from social media platforms which are now required to obtain licences under the CMA by January 1, 2025.
The minister said that while some companies have requested further clarification on the requirement, talks on the matter have progressed well.
The government previously said that eight major social media and messaging platforms – WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, X, YouTube, Telegram, WeChat, and TikTok – will be mandated to secure licences as they have at least eight million users in Malaysia. – December 21, 2024