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MAY 21, 2012

Presumed
guilty
> Internet users cry foul over amendment to Evidence Act
publication unless the contrary is proved. Any person who has in his custody or control any computer on which any publication originates from is presumed to have published or re-published the content of the publication unless the contrary is proved. (Computer here means any data processing device, including tablets, laptops and mobile phones.) Kuala Lumpur Bar Information Technology Committee co-chairman Foong Cheng Leong told theSun these amendments would put fear in people. We shouldnt even be discussing this law because it is based on the idea that one is presumed being guilty until proven innocent. Why does the owner of a site, or Facebook account, have to take the rap and prove his innocence while being subject to investigation and seizure of property? he asked. TURN TO PAGE 02
BY MICHELLE CHUN
newsdesk@thesundaily.com

REUTERSPIX

Zuckerberg weds long-time girlfriend

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook cofounder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg wed long-time girlfriend Priscilla Chan on Saturday, announcing the nuptials through a status update on the social networking site. The 28-year-old billionaires wedding took place a day after Facebooks initial public offering on the Nasdaq stock exchange on Friday. Zuckerberg, Time magazines Person of the Year in 2010, started Facebook in his Harvard University dorm room eight years ago, before dropping out of the Ivy League school. Chan just graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco. The couple met while at Harvard. Reuters

PETALING JAYA: The recently passed Evidence (Amendment) (No. 2) Act 2012, whereby internet users are held liable for any content posted through their registered networks or data processing device, is both unfair and an attempt to put fear in people, says civil society. The amended law will have serious repercussions on internet use as the owner of the site or device is presumed guilty and has to fight to prove his innocence, they say. What this means is, if an anonymous person posts content said to be offensive on your Facebook wall, or if someone piggybacks your WiFi account and uploads a controversial document, you will be immediately deemed the publisher of the content and subject to prosecution under the relevant laws such as the Sedition Act. Not only that, if a person starts

a blog in your name and publishes content that is red-flagged, you will be considered the publisher unless you can prove otherwise. All of this is provided for through the insertion of Section 114A into the Act which was recently bulldozed through both houses of Parliament in its last meeting with no debate. Section 114A, which explains presumption of fact in publication, states: a person whose name, photograph or pseudonym appears on any publication depicting himself as the owner, host, administrator, editor or sub-editor, or who in any manner facilitates to publish or re-publish the publication is presumed to have published or republished the contents of the publication unless the contrary is proved. a person who is registered with a network service provider as a subscriber of a network service on which any publication originates from is presumed to be the person who published or re-published the