GE13: Evidence of websites, political content being throttled
Edwin Yapp, TMI
The technical data on the forum was verified by independent experts contacted by DNA, who also conducted their own tests.
Malaysiakini chief executive officer and co-founder Premesh Chandran said the portal had evidence that shows access to Malaysiakini was being restricted.
After receiving complaints from readers last week, his staff conducted investigations in which they tracked access to Malaysiakini from various points, he said on the Digital News Asia (DNA) segment of the Tech Talk show on BFM radio today (May 2).
“We also looked at our Google Analytics and web statistics, and took a long time to figure out what’s happening,” he said. “But by Friday (April 26), we noticed that for 60 seconds the site would be available, and in the next 60 seconds, you’d get a delay or it hangs.
“We put all this data together and showed it to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). We also informed the ISPs regarding what was going on and alerted them to the possibility that someone could have hacked their systems and that they should look at it,” he added.
Premesh said that by Sunday (April 28) however, this pattern of Malaysiakini being intermittently accessible had disappeared.
“We’re still monitoring [the situation]. Basically, this shows that someone has been able to access the country’s main ISPs and actually create these blockages.
“This blocked access is not only limited to Malaysiakini as our YouTube videos produced by KiniTV have also been affected,” he added.
Free access to info crucial
With Malaysia going to the polls on May 5 in the country’s 13th general election (GE13), ISPs and the MCMC were urged to be increasingly vigilant against any attempts to prevent open and free access to the Internet.
GE13 is shaping up to be the tightest election ever, with many already describing it as “the mother of all elections,” and much of the battle is playing out in cyberspace.
“A lot is happening online – just look at your Facebook newsfeeds and Twitter timelines,” DNA executive editor A. Asohan told Tech Talk.
“This is particularly true of the Opposition parties as they have taken to the Net to campaign,” he said on Malaysia’s first and only business radio station, noting that the Opposition had little or no access to the mainstream media.
News that online news portals and Opposition content were being blocked intermittently should be investigated.
“There is something going on and it’s a very troubling and serious issue as Malaysia has the Multimedia Super Corridor Bill of Guarantees which states that there shall be no censorship of the Internet,” Asohan said.
“But obviously some parties are finding ways to slip past this ‘no censorship guarantee’ to restrict free and fair access to information,” he added.
Asohan urged the MCMC to conduct a thorough investigation into this alleged ISP throttling.
“I would like to see MCMC … find out who is restricting access to Malaysians, as I believe this is a serious betrayal of the Malaysian Government’s own stated objectives and guarantees to the Internet businesses out there that there’ll be no censorship.
“It is very important to this nation’s credibility that this be investigated. If there are rogue elements within the ISPs, they have to be identified and brought to book,” he added.
The industry regulator had yet to respond on these allegations as at press time, though it is understood the MCMC is preparing a statement.
DDoS attacks too
Independent news websites such as Malaysiakini and The Malaysian Insider have also reported increasing Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks against them.
