72 Dictating the Internet: Malaysia In Malaysia, authorities have used sedition laws and laws regulating online communications to control perceived criticism of the monarchy on online platforms. As will be shown in sections III (iii) and III (iv) of this paper, these laws – namely the Sedition Act 1948 and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (‘CMA’) – are in themselves not human rights compliant and have been misused to restrict freedom of expression and information in Malaysia. The cases highlighted below reflect how, in the absence of lesè majesté laws, protection of the reputation of a person of royalty or institution of the monarchy can still be advanced as a justification by State authorities to limit free expression and information online. In April 2019, Malaysia’s Home Minister stated that Malaysian police had investigated 97 cases of alleged insult against the monarchy on social media platforms between 2012 and March 2019, with 11 cases being charged in court under the Sedition Act or the CMA.243 As will be seen below, use of the Sedition Act and the CMA in Malaysia is not dissimilar to the use of article 116 of the Criminal Code and the CCA in Thailand to curtail such expression online. Section 3 of Malaysia’s Sedition Act 1948 criminalizes any “act, speech, words, publication or other thing” having a “seditious tendency” to “bring into hatred or contempt or to excite disaffection against any Ruler or against any Government” – where ‘Ruler’ includes the Yang di-Pertuan Agong (the constitutional monarch of Malaysia) – or to “raise discontent or disaffection amongst the subjects of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong or of the Ruler of any State or amongst the inhabitants of Malaysia or of any State”.244 Section 4(1) punishes seditious offences with three years’ imprisonment or a fine of up to RM 5,000 (approx. USD 1,207) or both for a first offence, and up to five years’ imprisonment for a subsequent offence.245 243 Bernama, ‘No need for lese-majeste laws in Malaysia, says Muhyiddin’, New Straits Times, 1 April 2019, Available at: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2019/04/475005/no-need-lese-majestelaws-malaysia-says-muhyiddin 244 Sedition Act 1948 (‘Sedition Act’), sections 3(1)(a), 3(1)(d), Available at: http://www.agc.gov. my/agcportal/uploads/files/Publications/LOM/EN/Act%2015.pdf; There are nine royal families in Malaysia, the heads of whom are Sultans. Every five years, the Sultans elect one amongst themselves to be the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. 245 Sedition Act, section 4(1).