Internet Censorship Update: Blocking of AsiaSentinel.com website

30 April 2024, Sinar Project with test data measurements from Open Observervatory for Network Interference (OONI), confirmed that a few Malaysian Internet service providers were implementing what appears to be an MCMC mandated blocking of the website AsiaSentinel.com.

After running test measurements and analyzing the data, Sinar Project has confirmed that Asia Sentinel (www.asiasentinel.com) has been blocked since 22 December 2023. 

At time of writing, data on OONI indicates that blocking occurred on networks run by 7 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) which redirected users to a server maintained by MCMC. This would have resulted in users facing difficulties in accessing the website. The ISPs are:

  • TM (AS4788 and AS38322)
  • Digi (AS4818)
  • Maxis (AS9534)
  • Time (AS9300)
  • Celcom (AS10030)
  • Mobile (AS38466)
  • YTL (AS45960)

blocking-asiasentinel.png

Source: OONI Data 

The data on OONI was collected through the OONI Probe App by Sinar Project and various volunteers. A confirmed blocking on OONI shows that there has been DNS blocking on the website whereby the DNS had been tampered to redirect to MCMC’s IP address: 175.139.142.25.

In 2016, Asia Sentinel was blocked by the Malaysian government possibly for reports critical of the then Prime Minister Najib Razak and reproduction of Sarawak Report articles on 1MDB. The block was removed in 2018 after Najib’s coalition lost the general elections.