The Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo and its ministry is mulling on a new law against news portals that purportedly allow insensitive comments to be left on their online platform by readers. He has recently advised news portal operators to be more careful and take full responsibility of what is written in their comments section. Operators are encouraged to post news of high value that could help strengthen national unity. Many complaints have gone into the ministry highlighting inflammatory remarks on social media and news portals which touched on sensitivities such as race, relation and royal institution.

The minister in a recent public statement mentioned that in this era where social media is heavily used and relied on, the platform and portal hosting these comments must ensure that national security is prioritise.

His ministry had made amendments to certain legislation on this issue and plans to table in the parliament meeting soon if time permits.

Suaran Sidhu, Partner and Head of Intellectual Property and Technology of LAW Partnership together with Jahabar Sadiq of The Malaysian Insight were invited to share their thoughts in a recent broadcast on BFM89.9, the business station.