Twitter user's phone numbers blocked after mocking PM

Two phone numbers belonging to a Twitter user have reportedly been blocked by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), more than a month after he was called up by the police over Twitter posts satirising Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

Salim Iskandar said he realised his phone numbers had been blocked since yesterday.

"I cannot make or receive calls and can only use WiFi to communicate.

"One of the numbers is part of a family package, so four other numbers belonging to my family members are also blocked," he told MalaysiaNow.

He said the telecom operators, Celcom and Maxis, informed him that they had received instructions to block the numbers from MCMC.

"Telco operators Celcom and Maxis informed me that my phone numbers were blocked due to fraudulent activities.

"But I have been using those numbers for over 10 years," he said.

Salim, a vocal government critic, had posted two tweets mocking Anwar's position in a state election campaign poster featuring him behind a candidate.

He was previously summoned to the federal police headquarters twice in less than two months. The police also confiscated his mobile phone twice.

MCMC had reportedly attempted but failed to get Twitter to remove Salim's tweets.

"As Twitter strongly believes in defending and respecting the voice of our users, it is our policy to notify our users if we receive a legal request from an authorised entity (such as law enforcement or a government agency) to remove content from their account," the US-based social networking service said in an email to Salim on June 30, informing him of MCMC's request.

MalaysiaNow is currently awaiting a response from MCMC.