Guide on Internet Censorship Monitoring: 2023 Malaysia State Elections

Malaysia’s State Elections will be held on Saturday, 12 August 2023, involving six (6) states: Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Terengganu, Kelantan and Pulau Pinang. 

In the previous GE15 elections in 2022, no significant blockings were found whereas in the GE14 elections in 2018, independent news organization Malaysiakini, live.undi.info was found blocked.

As part of our efforts to increase the transparency of Internet censorship, Sinar Project will be monitoring internet censorship during this state elections by collecting evidence of network interference and internet censorship using Open Observervatory for Network Interference (OONI) tools.

We are focusing on collecting evidence of internet censorship on targeted websites that are potentially at risk of censorship, particularly news and media sites, websites of political parties and politicians, official Election Commission websites and election monitoring sites.

Call to action

Join us in ensuring freedom of expression and access to information are protected on the internet.

Help us to collect evidence of detecting online censorship by following these 2 simple steps:

1. Install OONI App

• Android
• iPhone

2. Run the tests!

To check and test whether GE15 related sites are blocked:

Click here to test ALL GE15 related sites Click here to test news and media sites Click here to test politicians and political parties sites Click here to test social media sites Click here to test Official Election Commission sites Click here to test Election Monitoring sites 

Note that these links can only be opened on the OONI Probe Mobile App via mobile browsers. They do not work on the OONI Probe Desktop App.

When you click on a link from one of the categories, you will first see the list of URLs as below:

Then wait for the tests to complete. It may take some time depending on your internet speed.

To view the results you may click on the 'Test Results' menu.

What happens if you detect network censorship or you suspect your connection is being censored?

A result that shows 'blocking' indicates potential censorship. Share the data link so we can help verify.

From the test result details, you can get a copy of the OONI Explorer URL. For verification and review, you can:

• DM us on Twitter @sinarproject with the link; OR
• Email [email protected] with the link

Current list of websites tested

A list of all websites tested is available here.

 There are 47 URLs in total and this may be updated from time to time.