00:00In 2025 alone, Malaysians have lost 2.7 billion ringgit to online scams.
00:07Police have also uncovered hundreds of thousands of files linked to child sexual abuse material,
00:13and over the past few years tens of thousands of posts involving cyberbullying and harassment
00:19have had to be taken down. All of that paints a pretty clear picture of the kind of online
00:25environment people are dealing with right now. And that's essentially what the Online Safety Act
00:302025 is meant to address. The law took effect on January 1st, and what it really changes is how
00:37platforms are regulated. Before this, most platforms were operating based on their own internal rules
00:44about what counts as harmful. Even when content or accounts were flagged, action wasn't always
00:50consistent or fast. Now, platforms that host or spread user content, including foreign ones
00:57operating in Malaysia, have legal responsibilities when it comes to online safety. One thing that
01:03keeps coming up is this idea that most content gets taken down anyway. And that's true to an extent.
01:10Between 2024 and 2025, platforms removed about 92% of the posts flagged as harmful. But the thing is,
01:19it still left more than 58,000 harmful posts online. So even a small gap in enforcement can mean
01:27thousands of harmful posts that people are still exposed to. Another key point in this law is child
01:33safety. That's actually one of the core pillars of OnSup. Platforms are expected to take steps to
01:40limit children's exposure to harmful content and risky interactions. Things like how content is recommended,
01:47what settings are on by default, and who kids can interact with online. The idea is to reduce harm
01:53earlier, instead of only reacting after something bad has already happened. In terms of scope, OnSup covers
02:00serious categories of harm. Things like scams and financial fraud, child sexual abuse material,
02:07harassment and abuse, violent or extremist content, and material that encourages self-harm among children.
02:14Instead of just looking at individual posts one by one, the law focuses on how platforms manage risk at a
02:21system level. How content spreads, how it's amplified, and how people report problems. At the same time,
02:29there are limits. The law does not apply to private one-to-one messages, it does not allow mass surveillance,
02:35and it does not criminalize lawful speech or political expression. There are also safeguards,
02:41like notice requirements and appeal processes built into how enforcement works. So OnSup isn't going to
02:48fix the internet overnight. It's not a silver bullet, but it does change where responsibility sits when
02:55online harm spreads, and puts more of that responsibility on platforms rather than just users.
03:01Now that the law is enforced, the real test is how platforms actually adapt, and how consistently
03:08the rules are applied over time. Narutha Raja, FMT
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