A user on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has claimed that the Malaysian government had sent a request to X to take down one of his tweets. This came after he had tweeted about Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil and called him a ‘bloody moron’.
X user @yindian5 had originally posted on 12 December a tweet about Fahmi Fadzil’s new position as Communications Minister, saying that Fahmi had not done a good job causing the government to split the ministry. He also called Fahmi a ‘bloody moron’ and accused him of being ‘Anwar’s lackey’. This was in reference to the recent cabinet reshuffle announced by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, in which he split the Communications and Digital Ministry into two new ministries: the Communications Ministry helmed by Fahmi and the Digital Ministry helmed by Digital Minister Gobind Singh.
The same user then posted another tweet on 13 December, this time with a screenshot of a notice he received from X. The notice was from X stating that they had received a request from the Malaysian government because they claim that the content in it violated Malaysian laws. However, X had not yet taken any action against the user at this time as a result of the request.
We’ve since reached out to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission asking for a response or statement regarding the matter, and will update if they respond. Social media regulations fall under the purview of the MCMC, an agency under the communications Ministry led by Fahmi.
