KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — The government does not have the power to ban accounts on social media platform TikTok, Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail said today.

Aside from that, the government has plenty of other work to do, he said in a thread on his official Twitter account.

"If TikTok receives many reports and complaints from other users, then TikTok will ban the account that has become an issue,” he said.

He was referring to Perikatan Nasional (PN) election director Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor, who claimed in a video shared by PAS official media Harakah on its Twitter account that his TikTok account had been banned by the government.

It was the public who got Muhammad Sanusi’s account banned, Saifuddin said.

"Today the (caretaker) Kedah menteri besar said that his TikTok was deleted.

"He said that Malaysia has become North Korea!

"I of course do not agree because it definitely wasn’t the government who did it, we have plenty of other work,” he said.

In the video shared by Harakah, Muhammad Sanusi said that under the Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) administration, Malaysia was becoming like North Korea as the government was against freedom of speech.

He said that if PH is not opposed, it will restrict the freedoms available to Malaysians.

"If they are truly real men, restore my TikTok account,” he said.

He also claimed that TikTok and Facebook were his only avenues of reaching the public as he was not allowed to go on radio or television.