MCMC Has Blocked Access To A Popular Fan Fiction Site
Users reported that they haven't been able to access the site since last week.
By Samantha Khor — 13 Oct 2017, 01:53 PM
Popular fan fiction site FanFiction.net has apparently been blocked from access in Malaysia
A tweet by @FictionPress, sister site of FanFiction.net, pointed out that the only other country who has done the same is Indonesia, who blocked access to over 100 sites including Reddit, Imgur, and Vimeo, amidst an anti-online porn crackdown in 2014.
FanFiction.net was created in 1998 as a one-stop archive for fan-created stories revolving around characters of popular literature, movies, TV shows, and other pillars of pop culture
FanFiction.Net has long been regarded as the largest and most popular fan fiction website in the world. The site has nearly 2.2 million registered users as of 2010 and hosts stories in over 30 languages across nine categories - anime/manga, books, cartoons, games, comics, movies, TV, plays/musicals, and a miscellaneous category.
FictionPress confirmed the ban on Twitter, citing that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has blocked the site for breaching the Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998
For context, Section 233 of the Act criminalises the use of network facilities or services to create or distribute content that is "obscene, indecent, false, menacing, or offensive"
FanFiction.net's ban is likely to have fallen under Section 233(2), which refers to individuals or those in control of a network service or application who knowingly "provides any obscene communication for commercial purposes".
You can read the full provision in the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 here.
Malaysian users reported that they have been unable to access the site since last week. True enough, a quick check across several Internet service providers on our end yielded the same results.
A recent report revealed that MCMC has blocked over 5,044 sites between 2015 and October last year
According to the New Straits Times report, Sabah Multimedia and Communications Ministry information executive councillor Datuk Sapawi Ahmad said those websites had violated the Communications and Multimedia Act 1988.
"There are 4,277 pornographic, obscene, and seditious websites. The remaining websites contain elements of gambling, prostitution, cheating, and piracy," Sapawi said during a social media workshop in Kota Kinabalu recently.