Censorship of LGBT elements in movies, social media to continue, says Zahidi

KUALA LUMPUR: The government and religious institutions will continue efforts to curb any elements or scenes deemed to be promoting inappropriate culture such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) elements in films or social media like TikTok.

Deputy Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Zahidi Zainul Abidin (pic) said the government was always monitoring such platforms and would take severe action against individuals found promoting such elements.

However, he said it would not be able to control the content on platforms like online streaming and over-the-top (OTT) platforms based abroad like Netflix.

"Provisions in the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 does not include censorship of such content which is spelled out under Section 3(3).

"In addition, OTT services like Netflix are not like public broadcast services or private institutions in the country that fall under existing laws involving licensing and censorship in the country,” he told the Dewan Negara during a question and answer session here on Wednesday (Aug 10).

Senator Datuk Ahmad Yahaya had wanted to know the ministry’s position on a proposal to control content and programmes broadcast or released on platforms like Netflix to curb the spread of inappropriate culture among the local community.

Zahidi said accepting or rejecting content on such platforms is the choice of users through subscription but subscribers are urged to exercise self-control and use their own judgment.

Zahidi said parents and guardians can control the exposure of their children or loved ones to such content by applying special passwords or PINs to prevent viewing of content meant for mature audiences. – Bernama