FREEDOM OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Internet is something that familiar in modern society nowadays. The development of technology has made internet technology used to interact with each other but the Internet is also used as a tool to find information through 'browsing' and 'googling'. Thus, the Internet has spawned a network known as social media. Social media is a type of media used online by allowing users or the public to participate and share knowledge widely. Social media is also a channel that helps people to understand the process of communication, whether the communication between individuals and involving communication between human and technology.

Based on the drawing caricatures of the above, it is explained about the power of social media in the political system. The picture seems to indicate that social media dominate human life. A man who was holding a piece of wood as if he wanted to hit someone but was stopped by a group of people. "Stop or i will tweet" is a word that seems to reflect the threats to individuals who hold the stick. In fact, the facial expressions of those men also seem terrified. This shows that the power of social media can influence an individual's or country. Attacks on social media are likely more powerful than the physical attack. For example, the description of the painting shown that if an individual or a nation committed a crime, then the power of social media to make them budge.

We are aware that blogs and social networks like Facebook, Twitter and so on is a form of social media that is most commonly used by people all over the world, especially young people. If the traditional media is using print and broadcast media, the social media is now using the Internet. In fact, according to the facts, the percentage impact of social media in Malaysia in the Asian countries is about 72% whereas the percentage was preceded by Asian countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines 79.7% to 78%. Thus, social media has attracted the attention of people especially government, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in using the Internet as the main medium in understanding communities in Malaysia.

Social media is the main media used by most of the developing countries to bridge the gap between government and society. In fact, social media serves as expanding the influence of the government to the people in the social system. This can be seen in Malaysia, where the government is trying to use social media as a step to close the gap between society and the government. Thus, the various roles of social media used to influence people's minds at the moment, especially on current issues in the political system in Malaysia. Non-governmental organizations (NG0) also plays an important role in influencing public opinion in the political developments around the world.

But when there is growth and progress of social media in Malaysia, among Malaysians should realize that security of the country is more open to all kinds of threats also it will be open to the whole world to criticize the political issues in Malaysia. It can be associated to the painting above where it explains that, when one commits a crime or wrong, then a group of people will pass it through social media. Furthermore, social media is often used by everyone so it causes no limitations of using social media so that there are several groups trying to use social media as a medium for committing crimes by spreading unverified information. In fact, social media also provides a public space for citizens to express freely their political participation and without any pressure.

Otherwise, this social media are rarely used by the developed countries. This is because they think that their country's political maturity and they are more focused towards the development or economic progress. For developed countries, they rarely use social media because of the safety of their own country. Such as, China and USA. For example, the USA is the developed countries that have a number of social media users in the world. Although in principle, there is freedom in social media activities in the country, but when examined in depth on this matter, we will find that social media regulatory action by the government is an act governing the use of social media applications among government officials. This is to prevent government officials from manipulating or disclose to the public any confidential information for the purpose of the government's self-interest or the interest of certain parties and any related actions that could affect national security and national interests.

In conclusion, the issue of freedom of social media is generally in line with democratic principles, but if events and use social media without any control can have a negative impact in the long term for the country and society, especially in Malaysia. Therefore, the government plays an important role in the control of social media among the public so that there is no conflict between the government and the public when there are individuals or groups try to manipulate the political issues in Malaysia.