iMAP 2024 Internet Censorship Report: Executive Summary

This executive summary aims to provide an overview of the state of internet censorship in the nine countries covered under iMAP as a region. It highlights the overall trend of internet censorship, which includes the blocking of websites, instant messaging apps, circumvention tools, and network tampering, its similarities and differences across the nine countries in the region, and key events that happened during the coverage period that could potentially affect the trend of internet censorship. 

This report is separated into the following sections:

• Executive Summary
• This section explains the purpose of carrying out the study into the state of internet censorship and provides a general overview of socio-political situations across the nine countries.
• Key findings in the region
• This section provides a general takeaway on the blocking of websites, internet censorship during elections, and a summary of findings across different categories of websites: gambling, news media, pornography, political criticism, social networking, terrorism and militants, and government websites. Charts and graphs are available here for visualisation.
• Contribute to the study
• This section is created to help readers understand how they could contribute to the study and gather evidence of internet censorship.
• Annex: Methodology
• Here the readers will find how the data is collected, measured and analysed for the purpose of iMAP 2023 country reports.

This executive summary is a good starting point for reference to gather a general understanding of what is being affected by internet censorship in the ten countries. Our target audience includes researchers working on digital rights or network interference who are searching for ideas and materials for further research, digital rights defenders or civil society organisations looking for materials to support their advocacy work, and journalists seeking to uncover internet censorship, among others.

Recommendations to the audience:

• Learn about supporting evidence related to internet censorship in Malaysia by reviewing research and case studies.
• Understand the latest developments of internet censorship in the country, in terms of methods of blockings and the websites affected by censorship.
• Support or advocate for changes in laws and policies to improve internet freedom in Malaysia.
• Take action and get involved by spreading awareness, signing petitions, or joining initiatives that fight against internet censorship.

The data collected relies on test lists that usually include some websites that are known to be blocked. The list does not reflect the complete list of blocked websites, and the discovery of blocked websites is dependent on which websites are tested.