MCMC: Why we blocked live.undi.info, Sarawak Report and Medium

mcmcpic

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission says it blocked GE14 results site live.undi.info on polling night over concerns the results were not correct. 

In a post on its Facebook page, MCMC says it acted on complaints from the public that the results and information displayed on the site were inaccurate. 

"However, after reviewing the content being displayed, we removed the block as the criteria used to do so were no longer relevant at this moment," according to MCMC 

Digital transparency advocacy group Sinar Project released a report on May 16 saying that the website was blocked on the evening of polling day on May 9.

It claimed a couple of service providers blocked the website for several hours after 9.55pm using a method known as Domain Name Service (DNS) hijacking.

DNS hijacking works by redirecting users from their requested server to another. In this case, instead of going to the GE14 results page, visitors were sent to a site displaying MCMC's notice.  

The MCMC also says that it has no reason to keep blocking the Sarawak Report or Medium as the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) report is now public. 

The Sarawak Report was blocked by the MCMC since July 2015 in response to complaints that the site was posting unsubstantiated information despite an ongoing investigation by a 1MDB special task force.

Following the 1MDB audit report being declassified on May 15, the block on both sites were lifted.

The MCMC says any action it takes to block websites is in line with the laws of the country. 

"Any content that is pornographic, or has threatening or vulgar elements will be blocked, based on complaints that are received from the public. This is all done to maintain public order," it says.