MCMC Blocks Access To Sugarbook Website
In a statement, MCMC said that the site had to be investigated as user profiles can be altered for other purposes including scamming victims.
By Arisha Rozaidee — 16 Feb 2021, 01:50 PM
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has blocked access to the Sugarbook website following scrutiny from the agency
Last week, Sugarbook published an infographic detailing the top local 10 universities where sugar babies on their website were enrolled at. Since then, they have been met with controversy.
According to The Star, MCMC alleges that the website was breaching the law on the use of network facilities or network services.
They posted an alert on the website saying it had essentially violated Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (CMA).
However, the agency has yet to officially confirm the reason why the website was taken down.
This ban comes after MCMC issued a statement urging people to be careful when browsing websites such as Sugarbook that was under investigation
The statement read, "MCMC is taking seriously the marketing gimmicks of dating site Sugarbook which recently claimed that more and more Malaysian women, especially university students, are offering themselves as sugar babies on the website. The claims as found in their marketing gimmick needs to be investigated for validation as user profiles can be altered for other purposes including scamming victims."
"MCMC will continue to monitor and investigate the Sugarbook application alongside PDRM and will take action against users and owners of the platform if found guilty of committing activities that are against the laws of this country. If there is an element of prostitution, further action will be taken by PDRM," they added.
In less than 24 hours since the statement was published on Monday, 15 February, at 10.19am, access to the Sugarbook website was restricted starting last night.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) has also addressed the issue and reached out to certain universities that were on Sugarbook's list
MOHE director Prof Datuk Dr Husaini Omar explained in a statement that the learning institutions believe that the data published is questionable.
"Sunway Education Group stated that it was impossible 45% of current Sunway University students are involved as sugar babies. This is because there are currently only 7,000 students enrolled at Sunway University. Therefore, the report that was published by the media stating that as many as 3,105 students from Sunway University are sugar babies is just absurd. On 10 February, UiTM has also filed a police report to deny the media reports."
