Bread & Kaya: 2018 Malaysia Cyber-regulation and IT Cases – Fake news, non-public records & instant messaging

THE alternate of Government after the 14th General Election noticed adjustments to our sphere of cyber and IT legal guidelines. The new Government withdrew numerous expenses below s.233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, mainly against people who had allegedly spoken in opposition to the preceding Government.
The Anti-Fake News Act 2018 that turned into brought earlier than the 14th General Election became quickly shipped away by the House of Representatives thru The Anti-Fake News (Repeal) Bill 2018, however, turned into thwarted by the Senate. One man or woman has been charged and sentenced underneath this Act.
There has additionally been an array of interesting cyber- and IT-associated instances in our Courts.
A worker turned into disregarded from his activity as his conduct ought to amount to sexual grooming beneath the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017. His motion became recorded and featured in an undercover divulge with the aid of the Star newspaper team of reporters understand as The STAR R.AGE Team.
We saw the primary choice at the legal responsibility of online carrier companies i.E whether they may be responsible for trademark infringement for the sale and commercial of their Merchants’ merchandise published on their internet site.
We also noticed a more adoption of the digital carrier of Court files. In 30 Maple Sdn Bhd v Noor Farah Kamilah Binti Che Ibrahim (Kuala Lumpur High Court Suit No: WA-22IP-50-12/2017), the Intellectual Property High Court granted a utility to serve a Writ and Statement of Claim thru electronic mail and WhatsApp messenger after it could not find the Defendant at her ultimate regarded deal with.
Traditionally, when a Defendant can’t be placed, a Plaintiff might commonly ask the Court to allow a observe regarding the lawsuit to be published inside the newspaper, amongst others. The modern Rules of Court 2012 does now not expressly recognize the digital service of Court documents notwithstanding that humans are extra cell nowadays. Furthermore, the chance of being able to communicate with someone online is an awful lot higher than in character.
PKR communications director and Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai, Fahmi Fadzil’s civil fit against the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and Numeral (M) Sdn Bhd (Ahmad Fahmi Bin Mohamed Fadzil v Suruhanjaya Komunikasi dan Multimedia & Anor (Kuala Lumpur Sessions Court Suit No. WA-A52-2-02/2018)) for allegedly failing to protect his private records which resulted within the leakage of his non-public information together with the private facts of forty six.2 million cell subscribers has now been settled. This become one in every of Malaysians’ biggest records leaks. However, the terms of the settlement have been not disclosed.