Tragedy struck over the weekend as a 29-year-old content creator had taken her own life as a result of immense cyberbullying.
Prior to taking her own life, she had made a police report at the Dang Wangi police station in Kuala Lumpur, in regards to individuals who had allegedly spewed vulgarities, made defamatory statements and criminal threats towards her, leading to her receiving further threats to injure, rape and kill her.
Communications Minister, Fahmi Fadzil, attended the content creator’s funeral ceremony and spoke with her family members, before taking to his Twitter page to share the next steps in how the government will be dealing with the issue of cyberbullying.
He wrote, “A mother’s heart breaks when she sees her child’s lifeless body. 29-year-old Rajeswary Appahu took her own life after she was believed to have become depressed due to being bullied by individuals spewing ugly comments on TikTok. I am very disappointed and angry with what happened. Those who are the cause of this incident need to be brought to justice.”
He also informed that he has spoken to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo and Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Legal and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said about this issue and will meet with the latter 2 Ministers in the coming days.
“In addition, the issue of cyberbullying on social media platforms will be presented at the Cabinet meeting next Friday to find the best solution, covering legal and enforcement aspects. My condolences to all members of the victim’s family.”
Following this, a local influencer was arrested to assist in the investigation into the victim’s demise.
According to a report by Harian Metro, Sentul District Police Chief Assistant Commissioner Ahmad Sukarno Mohd Zahari said his side received a report at 4:13pm yesterday (July 7) from a 39-year-old man regarding threats received by the influencer on TikTok.
“The investigation found that the incident happened twice, at 10.15pm on June 30 (Sunday) and 4.10am on July 1 (Monday),”
“While the complainant was at Lorong Kolam Air 8 Jalan Ipoh, he saw 2 posts through TikTok from the Dulal Brothers account and the TikTok account of ‘Alphaquinnsha’ regarding slander and threats against Rajeswary,” he said.
Ahmad Sukarno further explained that the 2 TikTok accounts involved used Rajeswary’s picture as the background of their video content uploaded to their respective accounts.
“The content was also found to contain threats towards Rajeswary and also used abusive and obscene words. The results of the police review found that the accusations and defamation that were reported existed based on the screenshots submitted by the complainant to the police,”
“However, the videos are suspected to have been deleted by the 2 Tiktok account owners involved.”
The case is being investigated under Section 506 of the Penal Code for criminal threats, Section 233 of the Multimedia Communications Act 1998 for the offence of spreading obscene statements and Section 14 of the Minor Offenses Act 1995 for disgraceful conduct.
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Also read: M’sians Condemn Lawyer for Saying Bullies are FORCED to Work Normal Jobs When Their Victim is Dead
