Asean Parliamentarians for Human Rights (APHR) said the spread of divisive narratives and hate speech in Malaysia was exacerbated by the wide reach of social media platforms, which lack safeguards or oversight mechanisms to control such content.
“We believe that governments throughout the region, including Malaysia, must firmly hold social media companies to act more responsibly and take ownership of their role in facilitating the spread of hate and division,” APHR member Mohamed Irshad said at a press conference on the grouping’s fact-finding mission on “peace and harmony” in Malaysia.
Irshad, a former Singapore nominated MP, noted that during campaigning for the 15th general election last year, discriminatory and hateful campaign rhetoric was rife on social media platforms, with TikTok on “high alert” over the matter.
He said APHR was deeply concerned by the proliferation of such content, adding that some of it stems from lack of trust between the nation’s different communities.
“The lack of trust between different communities – the basis of some of these narratives – needs to be addressed through open and frank discussions to get to the root cause of the problems. If not, these issues will only recur in the future,” he said.
Present were former Klang MP Charles Santiago, who is also a member of APHR, as well as Maria Terezinha da Silva Viegas, an MP from Timor-Leste.
Santiago said the problem is not unique to Malaysia, and other governments are also making efforts to hold tech companies accountable for content posted on their social media platforms.
He said this is because tech companies are “accomplices” to the spreading of hate speech.
“First, tech platforms are used by a variety of people to post hate speech. (But) second, the tech companies are allowing this to happen.
“This means they are an accomplice to the process. So there’s now a global effort to make them accountable, and we are a part of (the effort) as well,” he said.
The fact-finding mission from Oct 7 to 10 saw discussions among APHR members with representatives from Suhakam and the Malaysian Multimedia Commission.
The Election Commission, communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil, as well as MPs from both sides off the divide took part in the discussions as well.