Difficult to crack down on porn sites, photo theft, says senior cop

Police face difficulties in solving the theft and abuse of personal photos used on pornography sites, such as in the current case affecting comedian Harith Iskander, due to the lack of solid evidence to link suspected perpetrators with the crime, a senior police offer said. Commercial Crime Investigation Department deputy director (Cyber Crime & Multimedia Investigation) SAC Mohd Kamaruddin Md Din said that although police had information on individuals suspected of running such websites, the case was often difficult to prove. “We need to put the person at the time and place when the action took place. Then we have to get information which only the website administrator can provide. They never cooperate,” Kamaruddin told The Malaysian Insider. On Harith's predicament in which the local celebrity had found pictures of himself and his son posted alongside pornographic pictures on a local website, Kamaruddin said one way such photos could have ended up there was through picture sharing on social media platforms. In some cases, cyberbullying may also be involved, he added. Harith today lodged a police report at the Taman Tun Dr Ismail police station after photos of him cradling his toddler appeared on a website alongside pornographic pictures. “In his (Harith's) case, although the porn site is in the Malay language, the domain and server are highly likely hosted abroad," said Kamaruddin. Unfortunately such cases of stolen and unauthorised use of personal photographs are not unique, he added. "We had one case where a complainant’s photograph was posted in a porn site. It was nothing explicit … but the culprit had sent the site admin her profiles, photos and phone number. "It was a result of an office dispute between the complainant and the culprit,” said Kamaruddin. He said in cases like this involving pornographic sites, police would request the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to block such websites if investigations hit a dead end. “We have many laws that we can use to put the suspects behind bars but obtaining solid evidence is the hardest thing to do,” said Kamaruddin. He said among the laws that can be used to charge perpetrators were the Child Act, provisions under the Penal Code for pornography and blackmailing, the Film Censorship Act and Copyright Act (for videos) as well as the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1988. – June 25, 2015.