‘POLICE CAN ACT AGAINST THOSE POSTING SUICIDE VIDEOS’
MCMC to notify social media operators of such recordings so they can be taken down
POLICE have the authority to detain and decide on the next course of action on those who upload videos and photos containing suicidal elements on social media.
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi Abdul Malek said social media operators would be notified so that they could take down such content immediately.
“However, if the contents were uploaded in a web address (or URL) hosted in Malaysia, then the MCMC will take them down.
“We will inform the Health Ministry to prepare a response technical team as part of our mitigation process in handling such issues.
“These measures will be executed as soon as we come across such content on social media because we want to minimise the negative impact on viewers and the possibility of copycats to occur,” he said at a virtual press conference yesterday.
Present were Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, Malaysian Board of Counsellors chief executive officer Juhari Jani, Health Ministry Disease Control Division and Mental Health Unit’s
Public Health Physician Dr Nurashikin Ibrahim and Broadcasting Department directorgeneral Datuk Ruzain Idris.
It is learnt that the number of calls received relating to mental health had tripled this year compared with the year before.
Dr Nurashikin said out of the 44,061 callers recorded last year, 40 per cent had called due to mental health disruption.
“This year, there are about 245 calls that came in every week. Not all of them are because of mental health issues.
“Those that relate to mental issues could be due to mental disruptions that stemmed from the Covid-19 pandemic, or recent job losses”.
Saifuddin said a task force on mental health support communication plan had been set up since April to tackle the matter. “We are working with the Health Ministry, Women, Family, and Community Development Ministry, Malaysian Board of Counsellors, higher learning institutions and non-governmental organisations to set up a mental health support communication plan and coordination task force since April.
“Under this cooperation, we have launched a 30-minute interactive talk show slot, which focuses on mental health issues aired on RTM TV1’s Selamat Pagi Malaysia programme since June 1.
“This slot starts from 9am to 9.30am daily, with speakers and experts from various backgrounds invited as panellists.”
He said it aimed to raise awareness on mental health issues, destigmatise the notion surrounding mental health and notify the public of existing channels to call for help, such as Talian Kasih at 15999 or Befrienders hotline at 03 7627 2929.