Aspect 2: Legal issues and security

Legal issues and security

[Updated on 7 Nov 24: added latest version of Red Book and added Queer Lapis article]

Wherever you are, it's important to understand the law—and also how it's changing. For instance, the police can ask you to unlock your phone and show them its contents. This is just one example of the basic legal things you should be aware of. Other questions you should ask include:

• If you take steps like turning on disappearing messages or deleting old data, could you get in trouble for destroying evidence if you are investigated by a court or police?

• Are there any apps or services which are illegal? If so, what are the consequences if you are caught with them?

• Are there any apps or services which are legal but still attract the scrutiny of the police or security services? If, for example, a police officer sees you using a certain app, would they take a lot of interest in you or search you?

• If you or somebody else from your community is stopped by the police or security services, how should you behave? What questions should you answer and when? At what point should you ask for a lawyer?

• Do the police or courts regularly request data from telcos or from website providers? If they do, do they only ask for information from domestic email and social media sites or also foreign ones?

💡 Irrespective of telecommunications laws, you should still communicate through encrypted messengers as often as you can, avoiding traditional phone calls in favor of calls via apps as well

In some places, certain sites or tools might be banned but not necessarily illegal. So you might need to use a VPN to access them because the telecom blocked them but police or courts would not go after you if you used it.

Due to the criminalisation of LGBTQ identity, oftentimes people who are visibly queer may be targeted by the police to search for evidence of some crime. For instance, queer people may be searched for other crimes, such as possession of nude photos or pornography, possession of scheduled medications like HRT, etc.

However, in the case of LGBTQ people the ‘reasonable ground’ can simply be because the person is LGBTQ, as LGBTQ identities are criminalised under both civil law and syariah. Read more about legal barriers and criminalisation of LGBTQ identities here. The Red Book by the Malaysian Bar is also a good resource about police power and what to do when being stopped by police. 

The law can change relatively quickly or in unpredictable ways, and can be difficult to navigate. If your community has access to a lawyer or somebody else who has detailed knowledge of the law and how to navigate it—make sure to consult with this person at regular intervals and maybe even hold community-wide workshops. It's also important to have a lawyer's contact details on hand, for example, if someone from your community is arrested or if a home or office is raided. If you do not have access to a lawyer, it's still important to research the law as it's changing, read the news, and talk to others to understand what their encounter with the police and other authorities looked like.

Don’t forget that you can also reach out to a legal aid center. Here you can find a list of legal aid centers in different regions, which provide free legal advice on criminal matters.

Most big technology companies also have something called a transparency report that gives a high-level overview of what requests they received from law enforcement and how they responded to them. This one, for example, shows how often the Malaysian government asked Google for data on users and in what percentage of cases Google granted them this data.

Notable resource: 

• Can the police check your Grindr? (Queer Lapis): This guide provides some queer specific tips when being stopped by police.