*UPDATE*
Minister Says Government Has No Intention to Close Facebook
The Malaysian government is considering banning access to popular social media site Facebook. At the moment, the government is conducting a study to see if the ban is needed.
According to Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, the government will study if it is necessary to ban Malaysians from accessing Facebook, due to cases involving abuse on the social media site.
One such abuse involved a user uploading a gory picture of an accident victim, and superimposing a picture of the King, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Abdul Halim Mu’adzam Shah, on his Facebok site.
As reported in The Star, Shabery’s Ministry is conducting studies to gather public feedback on this matter.
“If the people are of the opinion that Facebook should be closed, we are prepared to look into the matter but it is a radical approach,” he said.
Despite this, the minister did admit that it would be difficult to shut down access to the website. Out of the 15 million Malaysian accounts, the number of complaints received on Facebook users came up to about 2,000 accounts only.
“Many business people are also using Facebook, others to forge family ties and have nothing to do with politics…and the complaints received were only around 2,000. Should we completely close it down because of that? We need to relook this.”
Story and quote from: The Star
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