KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has denied claims made by a lawyer that his Facebook post was blocked based on instructions given by Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching.
In a statement today, MCMC said actions taken by the commission over the post made by lawyer Shamser Singh Thind in relation to Asia Mobility Technologies Sdn Bhd (Asia Mobiliti) were due to complaints received, in line with its standard operating procedures (SOP).
"Through his post dated June 3, the account owner gave the impression that the post he made was blocked based on the instructions given by the deputy minister (Teo).
"MCMC wants to emphasise that the allegation is not true and the actions taken were based on an objective review, which found the post to contain false and misleading elements, aside from violating Meta guidelines," the statement read.
The commission also stressed that one of its responsibilities was to ensure that online platforms were not used for any acts or attempts to violate Malaysia's laws, including the dissemination of fake news and defamatory content.
It was reported that Shamser had claimed his post dated May 26 was blocked for Malaysian viewers following a legal request by MCMC.
Shamser reportedly said he was informed yesterday of the matter by Facebook, which mentioned that the action was based on a legal request by MCMC as it had gone against local laws.
The Penang-based lawyer then issued a letter of demand to MCMC for allegedly influencing Facebook to block his post on Asia Mobiliti, stating that MCMC's move was against the freedom of speech guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.
Previously, certain quarters had raised issues of preferential treatment for Asia Mobiliti, a firm associated with Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh's husband, during the tender process of the Selangor Demand Responsive Transit (DRT) project.
This came after the revelation that Yeoh's husband, Ramachandran Muniandy, was Asia Mobiliti's chief executive officer.