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Malaysian government calls for Internet filtering

by on07 August 2009

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Says it is only to stop porn


The Malaysian
government has called for a tender for an Internet filtering system, but said it was only to block porn and not censor its citizen's free speech. Information, Communication and Culture Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim claimed that the expensive filtering system was all to protect kids from porn.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) and other bodies responsible for “policing Malaysian cyberspace” were told to look into implementing this system. Yatim said that he had asked authorities such as SKMM to find ways to implement this and study how developed countries have successfully overcome the problem of the culture of pornography. Yatim might have a problem here because developed countries don't try to censor porn, it is usually only backward, autocratic or extremely religious countries that try their hands at such censorship.

He attacked “liberals and supporters of liberalism” who have criticised the Government’s plans for such a filter. Yatim claimed that porn on computers had led to child sex because apparently we didn't have paedophiles before the advent of the Internet. However there are fears that this is just another Green Dam project to block “undesirable websites.”

The Malaysian government has had big problems with bloggers who it thinks are not respectful of politicians. It is only a small step to stick the websites of bloggers that the government does not like on a censorship list claiming they supported porn.
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