T&A: Reuters has released a report saying that the Malaysian authorities are looking into the possibility of establishing an Internet filter, similar to China’s abandoned “Green Dam” project.

While there is speculation that this proposal could be linked to how a vibrant Internet culture may have contributed to recent political challenges the government faces, tender submissions to implement the filter are already in place, with a second unidentified source saying that there are also plans to secure control over the content and monitoring division of Malaysia’s Internet regulator.

UPDATE 07 August 2009: Malaysian authorities have responded to the report and clarified that the filter is aimed at curbing pornography, this according to a follow-up report from Reuters. However, the report also warned of the impact a filter might have on investor confidence, citing whether this would affect Google’s consideration to set up the world’s largest server farm in Malaysia’s version of the Silicon Valley — the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC).

UPDATE 12 August 2009: Reuters has followed on earlier reports with an update where Malaysian authorities clarified that the Web filter will not be carried out. Instead, the country will now study alternative measures to police sedition, fraud and child pornography on the Internet.

This news comes as the country makes plans to double home Internet penetration to 50% by the end of 2010 with the introduction of a new broadband project.

Just two weeks ago, a BBC report mentioned British Prime Minister Gordon Brown saying that the power of technology — such as blogs — meant that the world could no longer be run by “elites”. He was speaking to attendees at the TED Global event in Oxford, UK.

According to him, policies, particularly foreign policies, must be formed by listening to the opinions of people “who are blogging and communicating with people around the world.”

He went on to talk about events in Iran, Myanmar and Zimbabwe, and how the global community — using blogs and Twitter — was able to bring events to widespread attention to a worldwide audience.

“Because people were able to take mobile phone photographs of what was happening at polling stations, it was impossible for [Robert Mugabe] to fix that election in the way that he wanted to do.” Brown was quoted from the conference by the BBC.