Malaysia blocked MalaysiaNow and website of former MP

In June and July 2023, OONI data from Malaysia started showing the blocking of news media outlet MalaysiaNow (www.malaysianow.com) and of a website (weechookeong.com) which belongs to a former Malaysian Member of Parliament (Wee Choo Keong). Both the blocking of MalaysiaNow and Wee Choo Keong’s website were reported at the time by our Malaysian partner, Sinar Project, based on OONI data.

The following chart aggregates OONI measurement coverage from the testing of MalaysiaNow (www.malaysianow.com) and Wee Choo Keong’s website (weechookeong.com) in Malaysia between 1st June 2023 to 8th December 2023.

As is evident from the above chart, the testing of www.malaysianow.com started presenting confirmed signs of blocking on 28th June 2023, while the testing of weechookeong.com started presenting confirmed signs of blocking on 25th July 2023. It’s worth highlighting though that the OONI Probe testing of these domains only started on those dates, limiting our ability to evaluate if the blocks started sooner based on OONI data. Yet, the dates correlate with the timing when MalaysiaNow reported on the blocking of their website, while the blocking of Wee Choo Keong’s website was reported on 25th July 2023.

Based on OONI’s methodology, we are able to automatically confirm the blocking of websites based on fingerprints when a block page is served, or when DNS resolution returns an IP associated with censorship. In Malaysia’s case, ISPs generally implement DNS based censorship by returning the IP 175.139.142.25, which is included in OONI’s fingerprint database (enabling the automatic detection and confirmation of blocks).

OONI data shows that the blocking of MalaysiaNow and Wee Choo Keong’s website is automatically confirmed because the IP 175.139.142.25 is returned as part of DNS resolution. However, it’s worth noting that we do not observe these blocks on all tested networks in Malaysia, nor do we see them implemented consistently over time.

Between 1st June 2023 to 8th December 2023, OONI data shows that www.malaysianow.com was only confirmed blocked on 4 networks (AS10030, AS4788, AS4818, AS9534) out of 15 tested. Out of these 4 networks, we only observe continuous signs of blocking on Digi Telecommunications (AS4818), but not all measurements from this network show blocking. On the other 3 networks (AS10030, AS4788, AS9534), we mainly observe the blocking of MalaysiaNow in late June 2023, while most subsequent measurements from these 3 networks suggest that access to MalaysiaNow has been unblocked.

Quite similarly, OONI data only shows the blocking of weechookeong.com on 4 networks (AS38466, AS45960, AS4788, AS9534) out of 15 tested during the same period. But more measurements show the blocking of Wee Choo Keong’s website (in comparison to the testing of MalaysiaNow) on these 4 networks over time.

Recent OONI data suggests that access to both MalaysiaNow and Wee Choo Keong’s website remains blocked on a few networks in Malaysia. These blocks appear to follow a precedent of news media and politically-motivated censorship in the country.

If you are in Malaysia, you can contribute more measurements by running OONI Probe.