He said the idea, still under consideration and study, was for a platform where victims could get help and where action could be taken against cyberbullies.

Speaking to reporters after a town hall session in conjunction with the Home Ministry’s Kita Demi Rakyat programme here, Dato’ Seri Hamzah said there was high Internet accessibility in the country but also high rates of cyberbullying.

“Our Internet penetration is high and it is showing that some people are beginning to use it to carry out bullying,” he said, referring to statistics that Malaysia had a 95.5% Internet penetration rate with some 28 million Malaysians or 86% using social media.

He said the number of cybercrimes had increased by about 61% from 4,433 in 2016 to 11,367 cases till July 2022.

He said among them were 178 racial, 328 religious and 357 cases against the institution of royalty.