NEWS: Govt cancels Net filter plan

PUTRAJAYA: The Government has cancelled its controversial plan to install filters at the country’s Internet gateways after a public hue and cry.

Malaysia will use existing laws to prevent Internet abuse instead of putting in place the special filter to limit web use, confirmed Information, Communications, Culture and Arts Minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim.

He said there were sufficient laws to nab those responsible for “negative practices.”

“We will not filter the Internet but Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin (Tun Hussein), (Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department) Datuk Seri Nazri (Aziz) and I have been tasked to look for instances of sedition, fraud and child pornography.

“We will then provide the relevant law enforcement agencies with the necessary particulars for them to take action.

“This is what we will do. We have laws in this country, including those involving the Internet, and everyone must abide by them. Perpetrators will have to answer if they break the law,” he told reporters after the launch of the “Fly the Jalur Gemilang” campaign by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak on Wednesday.

Rais was commenting on a foreign wire report that Malaysia was to cancel the tender for an Internet filter system, saying he was not aware of the “existence” of the tender.

He stressed that the Government would not censor Internet use.

The Prime Minister had earlier said that the Government would not impose any censorship of the Internet as such a move would be ineffective and could cause dissatisfaction among the people.

Asked how immediate the crackdown on Internet abusers would be, Rais said, “You cannot imagine, maybe I can summarise by saying the task is ahead of us and we have to keep up.”

The minister said the National Security Council would also have to look at possible preventive measures with respect to negative practices on the Internet, but added that it would not involved “any sort of application.”

Last week, The Star Online and other news portals reported that the Government had called for a tender for the system that has been compared with China’s “Green Dam” project.

Quoting a source with “direct knowledge of the tender,” Reuters on Wednesday reported that the tender has been cancelled after the idea was blocked by the prime minister.

Rais had earlier denied the proposed system would censor the Internet, and said the proposed system was to block pornography from being accessed by Malaysian children.

Reuters said it has a copy of the tender documents for the system which would:

* Evaluate the readiness and feasibility of the implementation of the Internet filter at (the) Internet gateway level; and

* Study gateway filters in countries that had implemented such measures and “find out (their) suitability for the Malaysian environment”;

China’s Green Dam project sought to install software filters on all computers sold in the country to block pornography and “other harmful content,” but has been put on the backburner because of technical issues and a rising tide of protest from civil society in and outside China.