Malaysia looking to increase powers to crack down on online gambling

Malaysia’s Communications Minister has tabled a Bill to parliament that would amend the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA) “Act 588” with a view to tackling online gambling, cyberbullying and sexual crimes against children.

According to the Malay Mail, the Bill from Fahmi Fadzil also proposes to expand the power of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to issue directions and mandatory standards and to empower the Commission to carry out audits.

On the online gambling and other crimes, the Bill proposes to provide stricter penalties as a deterrent.

It focuses on expanding the powers of the Commission to expand the subject matter of voluntary industry codes, to strengthen the regulatory and enforcement powers of the Commission; to promote industry regulation on network security and the powers of the Commission to address such risks, and to prohibit the sending of unsolicited commercial electronic messages.

The Malay Mail said this is the first proposal to amend the Act since it was enacted 26 years ago.