There has been a spate of viral videos circulating on social media on students being bullied in secondary schools, some depict violent behaviour where the recent one show five teenage students beating up another student in the washroom. A local daily reported that the videos are not linked to students from Miri as some people claim it to be. This has even promoted certain parties to take the incident to push their own agenda by giving it a racial undertone. Authorities are not pleased with these quarters and called for more responsible thinking when sharing videos.
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has warned the public to not incite racial sentiments in relation to the video recording of the student bullied video and instead asked the public to immediately report the video to authorities to enable further investigation. It reminds those who share offensive and menacing content is an offence under Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998, which carries a maximum fine of RM50,000 or a jail term not exceeding one year or both.
The agency is working closely with social media platform operators to remove the video recording from being viral. Meanwhile, the public is urged to be more responsible in sharing or commenting on any information in the form of video, photograph or even text via social media. Sharing or commenting on unverified content will not only cause public confusion but can lead to unnecessary unrest in this multiracial country.
