Analysis: Malaysia’s botched web rerouting plan shows it must be more transparent, ‘better prepared’ on new internet policies

Dr. Shafizan acknowledged that the action was in line with Malaysia’s wider strategy of exercising its “internet sovereignty,” which describes how some governments are attempting to challenge the “western aspirations” of a free and open internet.

The communications teacher argued that” these institutions largely support the ability to establish specific rules and regulations that shape the online in a way that is in line with their cultural and societal principles.”

She noted that Malaysia may have chosen DNS redirection as a “less evident” way of preventing access to some websites, so that visitors who attempted to access these websites may have encountered a launching error rather than a censorship notice.

It can be viewed as harsh from a liberal political view because it imposes what the general public can and cannot access, violating the fundamental freedoms of conversation and information, Dr. Shafizan said.

The government has the power to properly filter and block content, which allows them to influence public opinion by controlling the information that is made available to residents.

PRIVACY AND SECURITY&nbsp,

Mr. Numan, a spokesperson for Project Sinar, claimed that Indonesia uses a similar technique to prevent websites, particularly those that are associated with social discord or inappropriate content.

Indonesian ISPs intercept consumer requests and either redirect them to a wall warning page or just gain no results, he said, making the material impenetrable.

Although the professional approaches used by various nations may differ significantly, Mr. Numan said that they all aim to obstruct the free flow of information.

According to him,” These stones, whether through DNS hijacking or other methods, can cause widespread disruption to reputable online service, as seen in situations where major platforms and services like YouTube and GitHub have been blocked in Indonesia and India.”

Mr. Numan argued that DNS rerouting could have an impact on customer privacy because it allows ISPs and governments to track down and track users ‘ DNS questions, exposing their browsing habits and the sites they attempt to access.

” In contrast, security challenges arise from Domain tampering. Redirecting users to illegal or fraudulent websites can lead to malware being spread through malicious websites meant to steal or spread malware, he continued.

” This deterioration in DNS integrity you cause people to lose faith in the internet infrastructure they rely on,” said one expert.

VPN WON’T BE BANNED

One internet users told CNA that he was losing faith in how the state is handling security measures, calling the abandoned DNS plan “another little reduce policy” it was trying to put into practice quickly.

Mr. Khairi Zulfadhli, the head of electronic at a Malay search engine optimization firm, claimed he learned about the walk through social media after his customers who used Cloudflare servers experienced downtime.

” One thing that made me very upset is that they (MCMC) left it to ISPs to adopt the order without any guidelines, no customer relationship, no guide, no discussion at all. Then, they tried to blame ISPs when ( problems ) happened”, he said.

Following the plan U-turn, Mr. Khairi was presenting his observations from an MCMC wedding session on September 9, which the expert claimed was held to correct misconceptions and gather expert opinions on the DNS issue.