A general thread for sharing examples of internet regulation from around the world, and discussing their implications for NZ tech policy.
Last Sunday’s RNZ MediaWatch did a piece on “social media” regulation in Malaysia. The Malaysian experts interviewed all talked getting the balance right, to protect free expression, while also addressing well-known problems like disinformation and abuse, regularly created by enshittifying “social media” (mass marketing) platforms.
This wasn’t mentioned, but there are huge numbers of Mandarin Chinese speakers within the Malaysian population, and creating a tempting influence opportunity for the CCP. So the Malaysian government have strong geopolitical motives for regulating, which could push them into seeing a “balance” between free expression and limiting influence operations, and being biased towards the latter (Christchurch Call style).
Given our economic dependence on China, and the potential for political influence, The Malaysian regulations are well worth discussing. Whether as a source of regulatory innovations we might want to champion, or chilling effects on free expression or violations of privacy, which he might want to speak out against.
