Govt blocks pirate MalaysiaKini site

Malaysia’s Internet regulator, the communications commission MCMC, has blocked the Free MalaysiaKini pirate web site, which reproduces news articles and commentaries from subscription-only Malaysia Kini. The commission has listed the pirate site as an anti-phishing site and blocked it as part of an anti-phishing initiative to protect Malaysian Internet users. It says:

Why have I been directed to the http://www.skmm.gov.my/antiphishing website?
The web page you tried to visit has been identified as a phishing website. A phishing website is a website operated by a malicious third party whose sole purpose is to steal your personal information and password. The page you tried to access has been blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (SKMM) after it was identified as a “phishing” web page. SKMM has done this to protect Malaysian internet users from falling victim to phishing websites.

The anti-phishing block does not allow Malaysians any choice of whether to take a personal decision to proceed to the site. Users of Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers often get directed to a page warning of the dangers of proceeding to certain sites which may contain malicious code. However, they have the option to continue or to return to the previous site they had visited.

In the past two years such “attack page” warnings have also occasionally appeared for MalaysiaKini itself and Malaysian Insider, because links in some advertisements on their pages led to sites where malicious code had been reported. Another well-known site also suffers that problem. » Mahathir’s blog also listed as malicious attack site

The communications commission block appears to be an inadvertent answer to Malaysia Kini’s complaints about piracy of its content. However, Malaysia Kini articles reproduced by Free Malaysia Kini have often appeared high on Google search results, directing traffic away from the site.

Besides blocking anti-phishing sites, the communications commisison has previously directed Internet providers (Telekom, Maxis, P1, Digi and others) in mid-2011 to place blocks on filesharing sites such as Pirate Bay and Megaupload — which has now been taken down by order of the FBI in the Unites States, which also brought criminal charges against its owner. » Bail denied: MegaUpload founder’s funds frozen

A few pornography sites have also been blocked.