Prime Minister Najib Razak on Tuesday night that he has asked his cabinet to discuss section 114A of the Evidence Act 1950. "Whatever we do, we must put people first," he wrote.

An amendment to the act that took effect July 31 makes service providers such as ISPs and publishers liable for defamatory content. Users accused of violating the act must prove to the government they were not responsible for the comments, a shift in the burden of proof, said James Chin, professor of political science at Monash University in Kuala Lumpur.

The amendment is believed to be aimed at opposition media and social networking sites ahead of a general election that is expected to be called soon. Malaysia's government, similar to Singapore's, tightly controls print and broadcast outlets, which had resulted in opposition websites outnumbering government ones three to one, Chin said.

"The opposition has no choice but to move to cyberspace to get their message out," Chin said.

On Tuesday, a number of websites participated in a "blackout," displaying information about the alleged harms of the law instead of their normal content. The Centre for Independent Journalism (CIJ) Malaysia said on Twitter that more than 70 websites , including news sites Malaysiakini and Digital News Asia.