Curtin suspends Rosmah's doctorate comments on Face Book

After days of bombardment by Malaysians on Curtin University’s Facebook page, the institution of higher learning has suspended comments on its Facebook wall.

“Due to continuing infractions of our terms of use and Facebook’s terms and conditions, and the risk of breaching both the Defamation Act 2006 and the Commonwealth Criminal Code, we have unfortunately no choice but to temporarily suspend comments on this wall,” it said in a Facebook posting.

The suspension comes after repeated warnings to netizens to be civil when commenting on the university’s honorary doctorate award to Rosmah Mansor, the wife Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.

“Hi all. We have issued several requests to comply with our ‘rules of engagement’ on this wall.

"There are now so many personal attacks, allegations of ciminal activity, and hate mongering that we are obliged under the Defamation Act 2006 to remove this type of content.

“Again we ask kindly - play nice and please refer any comment on the matter of the Malaysian honorary award to this page. Thanks for your understanding at this time,” it posted, two hours prior to the suspension.

Though users can no longer post directly to Curtin University’s Facebook wall, comments to the university’s posting is still possible.

One user, Jenish Pandya, replied to the suspension announcement: “I can’t help but laugh at this situation, you want to engage with students through social media and don’t want them to post comments. Social media goes both ways. Good luck guys in damage control.”

Curtin University has earned flak on the Internet since last Monday, a day after presenting Rosmah with the award.

However, the university had tolerated the comments and resorted to deleting “personally insulting and repetitive comments” until today.

Photos and videos have also surfaced on the Internet, showing what appeared to be Curtin University’s certificates being shredded or burnt.