Kuala Lumpur, 11 – 12 December 2025 – Zulaikha Zainal Efendi, INITIATE.MY’s Project Officer participated in the (Re)imagining a Multi-Stakeholder Model for Internet Safety in Malaysia convening at the AICB Centre of Excellence. The two-day interactive event, co-organised by Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ), Sinar Project and ARTICLE 19, brought together representatives from the media, government, private sector and civil society to explore collaborative approaches to strengthening internet safety in Malaysia.

The convening took place amid a global rise in online harms affecting democracies and diverse societies. The proliferation of hateful and dis/misinformation content, opaque platform design and limited corporate accountability, alongside increasingly reactive and restrictive government responses that risk curtailing freedom of expression, underscore the urgent need for a human rights–based, multi-stakeholder approach.

Over two days, INITIATE.MY joined fellow participants in a series of interactive sessions to identify key internet safety challenges facing Malaysians today. Through stakeholder mapping and systems analysis, participants examined structural issues and accountability gaps within the current ecosystem. Insights from experts, researchers and regulators who have implemented multi-stakeholder models in other contexts provided comparative perspectives and practical lessons. 

Organisers then invited participants to reimagine and prototype ideal governance models, guided by principles of inclusion, transparency and equitable power-sharing. Using real-world scenarios, groups tested how internet safety issues might be addressed within these redesigned frameworks. Importantly, participants were encouraged to critically assess the limitations of their own “ideal” models, refining and strengthening them through iterative reflection.

Several cross-cutting themes emerged. A key concern was the lack of meaningful inclusion in policymaking, particularly of communities most vulnerable to online harms, including children and refugees. Participants identified strengthening collaboration with civil society organisations as an essential step forward. Another recurring theme was the intersectional nature of online harms and the fragmented ways they are currently addressed by different stakeholders, often resulting in policy and accountability gaps. 

As discussions concluded, there was broad agreement that any effective solution for Malaysia must be rooted in a genuinely multi-stakeholder process, one that places the communities it seeks to protect at its centre.