KUALA LUMPUR: A Malaysian IT security company that directly lobbied Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim over stalled efforts to make the internet safer has instead received a legal demand letter from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
The letter of demand, dated Aug 28 and served through Messrs Lee Hishammuddin Allen & Gledhill, requires the company to issue an unreserved public apology to both MCMC and the Prime Minister within seven days. The apology, MCMC said, must be published in a manner it approves.
The commission also demanded that the firm cease and desist from repeating its claims, bear legal costs, and provide an undertaking to avoid further publication. Failure to comply, the letter warned, would trigger legal proceedings for damages, injunctive relief, and other remedies.
MCMC described the company’s March 12 letter to Anwar as “baseless, highly defamatory”, arguing that it portrayed the regulator as “improperly influenced and incompetent”, thereby undermining its statutory role under the MCMC Act 1998.
Allegations of stalled execution
The letter to Anwar, sighted by Malaysiakini, was signed by the company’s chairperson, a member of royalty, and accused MCMC of dragging its feet on a proposal to block harmful online content such as child pornography, scams, and gambling.
The company, which holds exclusive distribution rights for Canadian web-filtering firm Netsweeper, claimed it had completed a proof-of-concept with local internet service providers (ISPs) to deliver a nationwide internet filtering solution.
The chairperson alleged that despite ongoing engagement with MCMC since October 2022, the regulator had failed to advance the project.
“ISP seems to have a power over MCMC and somehow has lost its way on understanding Netsweeper’s country-wide administration solution. ISP is doing a great job with building towers, selling cell phones and building networks, but they cannot deliver the same outcome as Netsweeper’s solution in protecting Malaysia’s internet sovereignty,” the letter said.
The letter further claimed that Malaysia is “losing money and falling behind on internet safety every day”, while MCMC had stalled on addressing “never-ending problems.” It appealed for Anwar’s political will to push the proposal forward.
