PENGAWALSELIAAN KANDUNGAN MEMUDARATKAN DALAM TALIAN DI MALAYSIA: SUATU ANALISIS DOKTRINAL TERHADAP AKTA KESELAMATAN DALAM TALIAN 2025 DAN HAK KEBEBASAN BERSUARA

Abstract

The enactment of the Online Safety Act 2025 (Act 866) (AKDT 2025) marks an important development in Malaysia’s efforts to strengthen online safety through the regulation of harmful content and the imposition of specific obligations on online service providers. Although AKDT 2025 aims to protect users from threats such as cyber fraud, child sexual exploitation and cyberbullying, several concepts and provisions within the Act raise substantive concerns regarding the protection of the right to freedom of expression guaranteed under Article 10 of the Federal Constitution. This article analyses AKDT 2025 from a human rights perspective by assessing the extent to which its provisions satisfy the three-part test under international human rights law and the principle of proportionality as developed, albeit unevenly, in Malaysian judicial jurisprudence. Through a doctrinal legal analysis, this article demonstrates that, although AKDT 2025 reflects a policy shift towards a preventive approach to regulating online content, its allocation of regulatory powers and its accountability mechanisms continue to raise concerns regarding the adequacy of checks and balances, the interpretative clarity of the term “harmful content”, and the tendency to favour content moderation over content curation. These concerns may have significant implications for the right to freedom of expression. This article therefore concludes that AKDT 2025 could be further improved to ensure greater consistency with the principles of proportionality, the rule of law and the requirements of a constitutional democracy.