Minister has issued out a statement that he claims his answers in Parliament were taken out of context. He then explained that he was just referring to the act that was made in 1981 and at the time there was no TikTok or youtube. The ministry agrees that they should update the act. They also clarified that they had no bad intention of taking an individual’s freedom on social media wasn’t like back then when there is nothing such as social media. Then said that the ministry is open for suggestions and opinions from the public.
“FINAS supplies three kinds of licenses to the film industry. These consist of: licenses to produce, distribute, and broadcast videos or films. Under Section 22(1) of the FINAS Act, no person can involve themselves in activities to produce, distribute or broadcast films unless they hold this license.” said Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, the Communications and Multimedia Minister.
To disagree, Syed Saddiq became the voice of Malaysian content creators and urged the parliament to reconsider the need for the license to be applied to them.
“This proposal will kill the Malaysian content creators who are in the majority, youths. Just take a look at all the content creators out there such as Naelofar, Max Man Tv, and JinnyBoyTV. ” said Syed Saddiq.
“They managed to develop their content to this extent because there was no need for them to get this expensive license,” he added.
He estimates that about 250,000 Malaysian youths will be affected financially if this goes through. To end his speech, he pleaded tot the minister to consider his statement and to reflect toward it and come up with clear guidelines.
“It is especially important for small-scale content creators to not be subjected to the heftily-priced licensing to not put a damper on their futures,” he said.
Still, in response to the issue, Syed Saddiq posted a video of him jumping around with a caption that says,
“Does this video of me jumping in Muar need a RM50,000 Finas license? Kasi chance, please. The majority of the netizens cannot afford to pay that hefty sum to post videos on social media. Don’t you agree?”