KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — App provider Telegram is ready to work together with the government to fight rampant digital piracy on its platform, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said.

He added that several meetings have been held with Telegram to discuss the issue, the latest being in April.

"We see it happening on several platforms, especially Telegram. We received complaints, including from Astro, about pirated films that are distributed on the platform.

"This requires the cooperation of the distributors, and copyright owners, as well as supervisory bodies like the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and I hope we can ensure other platforms will also fight digital piracy,” he told reporters prior to the special screening of Sheriff: Narko Integriti here tonight, adding that the ministry, including the MCMC, required a bit of time to tackle the issue as the platform was not based in Malaysia.

"Maybe people don’t quite understand the law in Malaysia, so the MCMC has held several discussions (with those involved) about the copyright issue. Hopefully this problem can be handled better soon,” he said.

Digital piracy on Telegram app has returned as a hot topic following a rant by prolific producer and director Shahrulezad Mohameddin expressing his disappointment on discovering his latest film Khunsa being made available for viewing on Telegram easily.

He also requested the Communications Ministry to intervene through MCMC to fight what he called rampant digital piracy. — Bernama