“UG (unity government) we can now crown you the most dictatorial government we have ever had. Syabas!” - Ambiga Sreenevasan

COMMENT | You can be sure of two things when it comes to the social media licence that the Madani state plans to introduce.

The first is that these big tech companies are going to come to some sort of agreement with the Madani regime because any form of licence or so-called regulations is not going to cost them a thing. It will be business as usual.

The second is that beyond fines (there is no reason to believe that the Madani regime will jail anyone from these social media companies because it would be economically catastrophic), there is really nothing much the Madani regime can do beyond stomping its feet angrily and call social media companies names like how Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim did when he called the behaviour of Meta “biadab”.

If the state thinks that it can bully social media companies like how they did with the print media back in the day - such as when they shut down The Star in Ops Lalang - they are in for a big surprise and they know this.