- Malaysia steps up crackdown on VPNs used to facilitate crimes
- Abuse includes circumventing the new ban on social media for under 16s
- Officials have stressed that owning or using a VPN is not an offence
Malaysia is set to take action if VPNs are used to facilitate criminal activities or help residents circumvent the new age limit on social media.
According to local reports, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Dr. Shamsul Anuar Nasarah that the government is working closely with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to tackle VPNs and borrowed identities being used to bypass the newly enforced age limits on social media.
For the many people reaching for the best VPN services to protect their browsing, encrypt their traffic, or simply keep their data out of the hands of advertisers, the reassuring takeaway is that the tool itself is not the goal. What the authorities want to reach is the small proportion of activity where a VPN is used as a shield for something illegal.
What Malaysia actually announced
The comments came during a question-and-answer session on cybercrime and age verification. Shamsul Anuar explained that the police would draw on public complaints and their own investigations to identify cases where VPNs or identity masking tools are being misused and that such misuse could be treated as an additional element of an offence.
He was aware that the crackdown is aimed at behavior, not software. The minister framed the effort as part of Malaysia’s wider drive to protect children online, pointing to a sharp rise in offences.
This is on top of Malaysia’s under-16 ban on social media, which came into force on June 1, 2026 under the Online Safety Act 2025. Major platforms including Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube must now verify the age of users and block under-16s from registering, with non-compliance carrying penalties reported to be up to RM10 million.
VPNs come into play because they are an obvious way to make it appear as if a user is somewhere the rules don’t apply. Age verification laws elsewhere, such as Australia and the UK, have repeatedly sparked surges in VPN sign-ups, many of which are often adults who want to protect the sensitive documents these systems ask them to hand over.
What this means for everyday VPN users
For most people, this is not a reason to stop using a VPN, and it is not a ban in disguise.
However, digital rights groups have been sharply critical of the age verification model that underpins the ban.
ARTICLE 19, along with local partners, has argued that the measure was rushed, is disproportionate and risks normalizing surveillance while exposing people’s identity documents and biometric data to abuse.
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