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Online Safety Act 2025

ONLINE SAFETY ACT 2025

AKTA KESELAMATAN DALAM TALIAN 2025

Act 866 · consolidated to 22 May 2025 · 66 pp

Artistic freedomSocio-economic rights
Consolidated to 22 May 2025. Amendments made after that date are not in this text. Check the AGC record for later amendments.
Why it matters

What this does to artists

The newest and least-tested speech instrument. It imposes duties on licensed service providers to deal with defined harmful content, which in practice means platform takedowns rather than prosecutions. For artists the exposure is not a charge but silent removal, and removal is much harder to appeal than a charge is to defend.

Watch this

In force from 1 January 2026. Almost no case law. Watch how 'harmful content' is read against satire, documentary and performance.

Start here

What to read first

Section numbers read out of the AGC text itself

s.13Duty to implement measures to mitigate risk of exposure to harmful content
s.19Duty to establish mechanism for making priority harmful content inaccessible
s.16Duty to make available mechanism for reporting harmful content
s.30Power to issue directions
s.25Report to Commission on harmful content
In practice

Where this one bites

Scenario

Post a set, reel or performance video

Uploading is reproduction and communication to the public, and then four separate speech regimes sit on top of…

Scenario

Take a brand deal as a creator

Advertising standards reach you personally, and the brand's terms usually take the copyright in what you made.…

Scenario

Someone used your work without asking

Before anything else, check that you own it. Most of these come apart on ownership rather than on the copying,…

Full arrangement of sections 83 sections · show / hide

Extracted from the AGC PDF on this page.

s.1Short title and commencement
s.2Application
s.3Territorial and extra-territorial application
s.4Interpretation
s.5Establishment of Committee
s.6Allowances for members of Committee
s.7Revocation of appointment and resignation of members of Committee
s.8Vacation of office of members of Committee
s.9Temporary exercise of functions of Chairman
s.10Functions of Committee
s.11Meetings of Committee
s.12Committee may invite others to attend meetings
s.13Duty to implement measures to mitigate risk of exposure to harmful content
s.14Duty to issue guidelines to user
s.15Duty to enable user to manage online safety
s.16Duty to make available mechanism for reporting harmful content
s.17Duty to make available mechanism for user assistance
s.18Duty to protect online safety of child user
s.19Duty to establish mechanism for making priority harmful content inaccessible
s.20Duty to prepare Online Safety Plan
s.21Report to licensed applications service provider and licensed content applications service provider
s.22Report to licensed applications service provider and licensed content applications service provider on priority harmful content
s.23Report to licensed applications service provider and licensed content applications service provider on harmful content
s.24Report to Commission
s.25Report to Commission on harmful content
s.26Action by licensed applications service provider or licensed content applications service provider on its own motion
s.27Commission may issue written instruction to make content accessible
s.29Notification to user on report to enforcement agency
s.30Power to issue directions
s.31Register of directions
s.32Power to gather information
s.33Proof of compliance
s.34Commission may retain document
s.35Powers of Commission shall be in addition to powers under Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Act
s.36Undertaking by licensed applications service provider and licensed content applications service provider
s.37Notice of non-compliance
s.38Review by Commission
s.39Financial penalty for non-compliance of duties
s.40Establishment of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.41Appeal to Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.42Revocation of appointment and resignation of members of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.43Vacation of office of members of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.44Allowances for members of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.45Quorum of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.46Decision of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.47Enforcement of decision of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.48Powers of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.49Suspension of members of Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.50Disclosure of interest
s.51Secretary to Online Safety Appeal Tribunal
s.52Authorization of public officer or officer of Commission
s.53Power to investigate
s.54Search and seizure with warrant
s.55Search and seizure without warrant
s.56Warrant admissible notwithstanding defect
s.57Access to computerized data
s.58List of thing seized
s.59Release of thing seized
s.60Preservation of communications data
s.61Disclosure of stored communications data
s.62Obstruction
s.63Additional power
s.64Power to require attendance of person acquainted with case
s.65Examination of person acquainted with case
s.66Admissibility of statement in evidence
s.67Forfeiture
s.68Jurisdiction to try offence
s.69Interworking with other authority
s.70Judicial review
s.71Power to exempt
s.72Prosecution
s.73Liability of director, etc., of company, etc
s.74Compounding of offence
s.75Obligation of secrecy
s.76Public servant
s.77Application of Public Authorities Protection Act
s.78Act or omission done in good faith
s.79Protection of officer and other person
s.80Power to issue guidelines and code
s.81Power to make regulations
s.82Power to amend First Schedule and Second Schedule
s.83Power to specify form and manner of submission
s.84Service or notification of written instruction, etc. First Schedule Second Schedule
Full text

Read the law

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English text

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PDF · 0.5 MB · hosted by ALIM

Teks Bahasa Malaysia

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Source of record · lom.agc.gov.my/act-detail.php?act=866&lang=BI

Who this reaches
Digital & mediaContent creationLiterature, writing & publishingVisual arts
Important notice

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The law changes. Each Act reproduced here is the Attorney General’s Chambers’ consolidated reprint and carries the date it was consolidated to; amendments made after that date do not appear in the text, and the authoritative version of any Malaysian law is the one published in the Federal Gazette. Subsidiary legislation, state enactments and local authority by-laws may also apply to your situation and are largely outside this library.

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