Malaysia shelves web traffic re-routing plan after censorship concerns

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia's communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said he has directed the communications regulator not to re-route web traffic through local domain name system (DNS) servers, according to a post on social media platform X on Sunday.

He said he had taken into account feedback from engagement sessions conducted by the communications commission and comments from the general public.

The directive, which was supposed to take effect on Sept. 30, had sparked concerns about increasing online censorship and potential damage to Malaysia's digital economy.

DNS is a system that translates domain names into numerical addresses used by computers to locate websites on the internet.

While local internet service providers, or ISPs, often operate their own DNS servers, some web users use public DNS servers, such as those provided by Google GOOGL.O or Cloudflare NET.N, to gain faster internet speeds or access websites blocked on local ISPs.

Under the government plan, user requests from such third-party DNS servers will be redirected to those operated by Malaysian ISPs.

In a statement late on Saturday, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) denied the measure was "draconian", saying it was aimed at protecting vulnerable groups from malicious or harmful content, such as online gambling, pornography, copyright infringements, phishing or financial scams.

"DNS redirection ensures that harmful websites are blocked while legitimate websites remain reachable without noticeable disruption," MCMC said, adding that it had blocked 24,277 websites between 2018 and Aug. 1, 2024 to protect users' safety.

Users facing trouble accessing sites could file a complaint to ISPs, while blocked websites can appeal to regulators, it said.

In his post on X, the minister said online crime was of great concern and pledged to continue engaging stakeholders "to obtain views, suggestions and recommendations to ensure that the objective of a safer internet can be achieved together".

State assemblyman Syed Ahmad Syed Abdul Rahman Alhadad, a member of Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party, had called the plan "draconian", saying it could negatively affect Malaysia's digital economy - which has been boosted this year by large investments from major tech firms such as Microsoft MS, Amazon, Nvidia and Google.

Lim Yi Wei, an assemblywoman from the Democratic Action Party, part of Anwar's ruling coalition, said the plan amounted to censorship and posed cybersecurity risks such as DNS poisoning, where web traffic could be redirected by hackers.

The move comes amid heightened scrutiny of online content under Anwar, who ran on a progressive platform before being voted into power in 2022.

An Asian industry group that includes major tech firms such as Meta, Google and X last month urged Malaysia to pause a plan to license social media platforms, citing a lack of clarity over the proposed regulations.

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