15th Malaysian General Elections: Internet Censorship Monitoring

During the recent general elections, Sinar Project used Open Observatory Network Interference (OONI) to monitor online censorship during the elections.

elections.png

Some of the key findings on the initiative done during the GE15 elections:

  • A total of 68 websites were in the test list, comprising a few categories: News & Media, Politicians and Political Parties, Social Media, Election Monitoring and Official Election Commission websites.
  • No significant censorship was found, with the exception of the blocking of Bersih.org by TT DOTCOM. This is the official website belonging to the Coalition for Clean and Fair Election but this has already been blocked since 2021 based on OONI’s data.
  • There were above-average failures and anomalies reported in accessing the MySPR Semak website (https://mysprsemak.spr.gov.my/semakan), which was to check information on polling; as well as InfoPRU, a website of the coalition Perikatan Nasional (https://www.pnbest.my/).

Full article available on the iMAP website here.