Lawyer Calls Out MCMC For Breaking Own Law By Sending Out Spam SMS

In the last few days, many of us received a message from the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) celebrating its 20th year of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA 1998), right? Just like the one below.

Source: Twitter

FMT reported that this message may be a breach of the very act that they were celebrating itself, according to Eric Paulsen, executive director of Lawyers for Liberty. Oh no!

“As this was an unsolicited message sent to the public without their consent, MCMC’s act falls squarely within the definition of ‘spam’, as set out in their 2004 report on ‘Regulating Unsolicited Commercial Messages’, and also possibly under Section 233(1)(b) CMA 1998.”

“Further, in failing to include an opt-out option to allow recipients to remove themselves from the messaging list, it has run afoul of its own recommendations, as stated in paragraph 11 of the same report,” said Eric.

In short, it could be a breach of CMA 1998 because;

• It’s an unrequested message
• There’s no opt-out option for recipients

Source: Lawyers For Liberty

Eric further explained that MCMC’s message was “shocking and appaling” as it had chosen to breach its own spam-preventing guidelines. 

“It is completely unacceptable that while demanding commercial service providers such as telco companies to be held to high standards of conduct when handling consumer data, the regulators themselves see fit to dispatch a mass political message that is of no value.”

“The gravity of this breach cannot be understated,” he said.

For illustration purposes | Source: Jean Fitzpatrick, L.P.

Eric also shared that MCMC had misused its privilege of having access to all registered mobile phone numbers in Malaysia. That’s not very ethical! 

“With this data comes a responsibility, to ensure that it is not misused, in line with its role, as defined in the CMA 1998.”

“This right to privacy and the protection of consumer data are further supported by the Personal Data Protection Act 2010, which seeks to prevent improper usage of personal data in commercial transactions,” he explained.

Further criticising MCMC for the message, Eric added that it has proven its unworthiness and unreliability as a regulator of the digital communications, multimedia, media and broadcasting industries, again.  

“The regulator’s image lies in tatters following the various scandals of the past few years.”

“Most notably, the massive personal data breach that came to light in 2017 following MCMC’s questionable dealings with Neumera Sdn Bhd. This resulted in the breach of personal data of more than 46 million mobile phone subscribers,” critised Eric.

For illustration purposes | Source: Focus.cari

Besides that, he also questioned MCMC’s inability to send out an alert message about a possible data breach since it’s able to perform a mass SMS blast.

“Why, at the time of the data breach, did MCMC not send out messages to affected individuals warning them that their data may have been exposed?”

“Instead, why has this ability been misused to urge the public to ‘celebrate’ the 20th anniversary of the CMA 1998, a rather bizarre exhortation to say the least,” he said.

Hence, in the future, Eric requests MCMC to take its job and responsibilities more seriously. This is because, right now, its integrity and trustworthiness as a regulator are at stake. Hopefully, they do take his advice! 

With that said, let’s hope MCMC is able to quickly resolve this issue or at least release a statement on the matter. Did you get the SMS from MCMC too? Tell us what you think of it in the comments! 

Also read: M’sians Are Confused AF After Getting Mysterious Text Messages From MCMC