Ahmad Shabery: Government will not block social media

THE government will not make any move to block social media and networking sites, such as Facebook and Google, despite having to face the challenge of negative information overload on the Internet.

Instead, Communication and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek said his ministry, through the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) would always monitor and take immediate action against the spread of negative content.

He said the government was also prepared to look into the need to amend or improve existing laws in facing the challenge of information overload.

“However, we will not reach that stage because we believe that there are more goodness and positive things that we can learn from this world of information overload or what is known today as hyperconnectivity,” he said, citing the move made by the Government of China to block the use of Facebook and Google in the republic.

He said this when winding up the debate on the motion of thanks for the royal address at the Dewan Rakyat here yesterday.

Ahmad Shabery said the ministry had always worked closely with the police to tackle cyber crimes.

He said the fact that Malaysia was ranked third together with Australia and Oman, behind the United States and Canada, in the Cybersecurity Index 2014 by the International Telecommunication Union also proved that Malaysia was on the right track.

In another development, the minister said the government would also create a new television channel for the broadcasting of Parliament session once RTM entered a fully digitalised broadcasting system. — Bernama