Censorship in Malaysia has evolved into a mixed bag of misinformation and mystery, and some people claim that new censorship plans are underway. Nobody is exactly sure what's going to happen. The Prime Minister himself denied that any plans fitting the description of censorship were underway. However, if plans to apply censorship to Malaysian Internet access do exist, it would be common place to see such a sanction inducted into law. And, as always, censorship initiatives are almost always met with stiff public opposition.
In order to accomplish these initiatives, filters are installed in cooperation with Internet service providers. For example, Thailand does not require that ISP's censor offensive content, but there is an unspoken law in countries like these. Disobeying a government request most often results in higher penalties and additional sanctions. Restricting bandwidth and revoking an ISP's license are two such penalties.
In a similar fashion, some Malaysian companies are given free will without the burden of censorship. However, if such an ISP is found to be violating Malaysian law, such as allowing an organization to launch an anti-government rally, Malaysian authorities most often wield an iron fist in the face of these rebel parties. The punishments are often extraordinarily severe, depending on the scope of the crime.
Basically, any opposition to government regulation is considered a violation of law and dealt with accordingly. Malaysia's stance on the matter is fairly simple. Any content on the Internet that could jeopardize Malaysian authority is considered to be a violation of the law. The determination of what constitutes a violation rests in the hands of Malaysian authorities.
An Internet filter stands to solve the problem of questionable content available to all Malaysians. Just like in China, any defacing of government image could lead to rebellion and/or disrespect for the country in which they live. In addition, Malaysia is not an incredibly wealthy country, so any content deemed to be detrimental to the livelihood of Malaysia would fall under the scrutiny of the censorship filter.
Wealthy individuals and businesses have the option of purchasing a VPN, or (Virtual Private Network), to gain unadulterated and uncensored access to the Internet. The advent of an Internet filter that blocks content causing damage to the public view or general morale is a wise move by Malaysian officials. As of the present moment, there are no restrictions on Internet access for the general public. But, if such a content filter is installed, there remains the problem of sites accidentally being blocked for no reason. A content filter is no match for the human mind, and there are bound to be pages filtered out that are not in violation of Malaysian censorship efforts.
When and if the filter is launched, Internet users will have to hope for the best. There is no way to know what content the filter is going to block, so business sites are in danger of temporarily losing revenue while glitches are sorted out. On the other hand, purchasing a Virtual Private Network still offers users the ability to surf the Internet without any restrictions.
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