18 NATION

The Star, Tuesday 4 June 2013

Cafe
Latte
Chat
Compiled by MICHELLE TAM
Martin: Prior to the 2008 elections, the
Internets biggest social media influences
were bloggers. Since then, Facebook and
Twitter have become major players. Will
social media use become even more influential? Is the impact positive or negative?
Should people like Papagomo be able to say
whatever they want with unrestricted freedom?
Zara: In the past, restrictions upon freedom
of speech were very political in nature. I dont
think that anybody can be allowed to say
whatever they want. The boundaries that I
would support are, for instance, hate speech.
But there must be a healthy debate regarding the restriction of freedoms, There shouldnt
be a top-bottom approach where one authority decides what limitations to put on freedom
of speech and then protects people from information.
As to whether social media has gone too far
I think analysing social media as if its a sentient animal is erroneous. A lot of political
parties say Social media is being bad to me
and treat it like a conglomeration of people.
But social media is a reflection of society,
not a tool in itself. People have always thought
these thoughts. The difference is that now we
actually have avenues to speak out and express
ourselves.
Niki: We have to look at social media as
individuals who are speaking and look at the
culture of how people behave when using this
technology. Although these are thoughts that
people are voicing out, its human nature to
already have certain barriers when talking to
others in real life.

Social media in Malaysia

In this Cafe Latte Chat, we bring together lawyer syahredzan Johan, digital strategist Zara Kahan,
senior social media strategist niki Cheong, senior asset management analyst Kavilan nakaswaram
and shahid shayaa, who is former private secretary to Minister in the Prime Ministers department
datuk seri Idris Jala. The chat was moderated by star Online news editor Martin Vengadesan.
discuss what the terms of hate speech are. And
Syahredzan, if we introduce hate speech legislation here, would we have to craft a new
act?
Syahredzan: Id say our Penal Code would
suffice. You dont need a specific media council
or a specific minister to censure it, because
youve currently got laws to do that. its a normal criminal penalty.

Lets get social: Martin (third from right) moderating the Cafe Latte Chat with (from left) shahid, niki,
Zara, Kavilan and syahredzan.
But once we go online, its a different avenue
with different rules. Initially there was so
much anonymity, and weve taken those elements without realising we are much more
public in our profiles now, and thats whats
making the difference.
Martin: Has social media improved communication in Malaysian society?
Niki: Finally, everyone has a platform to
speak up. As someone who grew up in the 80s,
I dont think we were in an environment
where we were encouraged to speak up.
Suddenly, we had blogs and everything; thats
why I think the adoption rate is so high. People

finally feel they can actually say things.

Shahid: With social media, we need to
embrace the good, the bad and the ugly. Its a
polarity to be managed, not a problem to be
solved. The problem with this information
overload is that theres a high chance of false
information. Sometimes we get excited and
just keep sharing.
Lets look at content in terms of white, grey,
and black. Many of these hardcore political
bloggers are playing on the black (such as sex
videos, etc). But most people gravitate to grey,
which is a bit of fiction and a bit of facts.
Martin: Are we sitting on a powder keg
situation where social media could be playing a dangerous role?
Kavilan: I think social media is self-regulating enough. If you give false or wrong information, someone out there will correct you. Then,
you either learn from it or reject it outright.
Niki: For my Masters dissertation, I looked
at 10,000 tweets from Bersih. The most
retweeted picture was one where the whole
city was yellow. Even in Dataran Merdeka,
which was totally cordoned off, so everybody
could see that the picture was fake. It got
almost one thousand retweets. So I disagree
when you say its self-regulating.
Kavilan: People will respond. I didnt mean
that the person would be self-regulating. I
meant the whole entity of social media: the
people around you and your community would
evolve to self-regulation.
Zara: Social media is made to seem like its
a really harmful tool, which scares people
unnecessarily. Before you start restricting
social media, there is the burden on you to
prove the harm to me. If we can prove theres
actual harm, there are already laws in place
slander and defamation.
Syahredzan: To me, social media is a good
thing. If you ask me whether its gone too far,
Ill say Maybe!, but I wouldnt have it any
other way.
Martin: So you will not support any form
of regulation to curb hate speech?
Syahredzan: Regulations with certain barriers. For instance, I have a problem with Section
233 of the Communications and Multimedia
Act 1998. It basically says: whoever posts anything which annoys people online, that can be
an offence. Its far too restrictive.
It cant measure up against current democratic norms, except where it prevents causing
of ill-will. Even then, you can argue that its
provided for in the Penal Code. To me, the
Sedition Act just needs to go.
Kavilan: If something is indeed seditious or
defamatory, the law should take action. We
cant put a blanket ban to prevent it because
that would curb freedom of speech. I should be
able to speak my mind, but it is up to you
whether you want to listen.
Zara: The problem with sedition law currently is that its a bit too general. We have to

Martin: Most of you have curated social

media groups like @twt_malaysia. What
kind of engagement was there?
Niki: It was fascinating and a totally different audience from my own Twitter account.
The followers are slightly younger, and a bit
more earnest. Theres a whole other element
that were all not seeing. So when we say people are not sharing stuff, we think theyre not
sharing it between our circles and our network. But I think theres something else happening somewhere else that were not seeing,
especially with different languages.
Syahredzan: Once I moderated a forum
with three other hijabsters and each of them
had more followers than me! They dont tweet
politics, because its not good for business,
which some of them have. They tweet about
lifestyle. This is another aspect of social media,
because we are tuned into this one.
Niki: In Malaysia, the Malay market is huge.
Look at urban English-language bloggers.
30,000 hits a day.
Kavilan: The political issue in social media is
very young, and I think its a fad. Give it another four months after the elections, and the
popularity of political posts will wane. Then
after three years, itll rise again.
Zara: I dont think its just popular culture or
a fad. Interest in politics grows along with how
people are invested in their country, in their
democracy.
I think the faith of the populace in whether
or not they can affect change will affect social
media. Its not about the number of tweets you
have or the amount of posts. Its about the
people and how theyve changed and the perception of politics in Malaysia.
Niki: More than fads and trends, its the
societys sentiment at that point.
Martin: Closing thoughts on the social
media scene in Malaysia?
Shahid: It takes up a lot of your time. Its
good to have panels like this whereby its good
to have closure. Online debates dont really
have closure. I dont live in the virtual world,
so to speak. I usually only spend one hour on
social media.
Kavilan: My online interaction evolved into
face-to-face interaction. I met a lot of friends
through Twitter. Weve met and talked and
disagreed on politics for two to three hours. Its
information sharing and social media was the
catalyst.
Niki: Ive always seen social media and technology in general as an extension of myself.
Ive become so reliant on it but I dont see it as
an addiction. I love the diversity of opinions
and making friends.
Syahredzan: Social media is a godsend.
Tweeting is not just something you do because
you want people to hear you. I use it because I
want to get information. Ill scroll my timeline
to see what the biggest issue is.
Zara: When I was a teenager, I thought
Malaysia was a one-note country where everybody agreed with one another. Now,
Malaysia has become a more exciting place for
me because of social media. This is why I like
social media being such a crazy town. And I
will fight against any form of regulation against
it, because social media exposes me to such a
diverse range of opinions.
> For the full transcript, log on to www.thestar.
com.my.