Section 114A of the Evidence Act, Doom For Every Internet User!

If you are here, you are definitely an Internet user too. You are being affected by this new law passed by the government w/out you even knowing about it.  

Being an internet user, I suppose you would have an e-mail and at least an account in any social sites available to us today such as;  Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Friendster, Hi5, Tagged, Google+, to name just a few. 
Having said all this you would also for sure have came across impersonation/fake profiles, hacking and such.

Being a freelance writer, I have came across articles purportedly written by me being circulated widely on the "world wide web". I would usually just ignore those articles as, it is impossible for me to remove/delete the article and police reports would just be an extra headache for me. So over the years I have developed a certain style in my writings. Those who have been following my articles would recognise my style and I leave it for readers to judge.

 With the new amendment to the Evidence Act 1950 which just came into force I cannot rely solely on the goodwill of my readers anymore. It won’t matter if my so called “article” was full of mistakes which I wouldn't normally make. I would be opined as the author of it in the eye of law until I can prove otherwise.

The newly inserted Section 114A of the Evidence Act provides for the following:

[ http://www.parlimen.gov.my/files/billindex/pdf/2012/DR162012E.pdf ]

# Owners, hosts, administrators, editors or sub-editors of websites or social media accounts are deemed responsible for any content that has been published or re-published on their site whether by themselves, persons impersonating them or any other persons;

# Subscribers of a network service which was used to publish or re-publish any content are deemed responsible for the publication; and

# Owners or individuals in custody of an electronic device that was used to publish or re-publish any content are deemed responsible for the publication.

Basically, this means that until you can prove you are innocent of these charges, you are considered by the law as guilty.

This is a complete reversal of the usual “innocent until proven guilty” axiom in most courts of law.

Now this caused a chill in my spine! Over the years, not only have I been impersonated in articles and comments but also in real life.

Now all of these people will be encouraged to do more because of this law. They will know that I will have to spend so much time, energy and expense to fight to prove my innocence in the courts that they will get away easily. 

Furthermore, while I’m trying to prove that I didn’t write these articles, they can continue to keep writing them with impunity.

Who does this law is meant to protect? Is this a good law? The credibility of those who made and passed this law/parliament should be questioned !

More importantly, it is a huge threat to the freedom of speech as stated in our Federal Constitution.The Government is hoping that this new law will curb postings by anonymous bloggers and commentators whom are critical of the Government. At the same time, this law is more far-reaching because it makes owners of blogs, Facebook pages and Twitter accounts responsible for anything that appears on them.

 --> If someone posts an anonymous comment on my blog or Facebook page that somebody else does not like, then I’m instantly responsible for it even if I don’t know who the poster is in real life.

It makes me to wonder how laws are made in this country! 

This is the result of not giving the law enough scrutiny and debate in Parliament, rushing to create law to safeguard themselves and not considering the effect of it on others. Doesn't this also make you worry about the other laws passed in such a hurry as well? What traps lurk within them that we don’t know about, and which we could unknowingly get caught in?

If I were to do something wrong, the government could interfere, but when the government does something bad or wrong and when the public criticise about it using the freedom to speech given to them by the constitution, after all laws made should be intended for the well being of the citizens and country but here public/citizen may end up in the court or even behind the bars! Pretty much what I think is the main purpose of  Section 114A of the Evidence Act.

p/s: Do you know how laws in Malaysia are made? Follow this link ( a brief explanation) : http://www.lawyerment.com/library/kb/Malaysian_Legal_System_and_Constitution/Legal_System_and_Theory/1000.htm

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