This month alone, police arrested two men and one woman on charges of tweeting comments that were allegedly insulting to Sultan Muhammed V after he abdicated as the country's ruler on January 6.
"Let's not have royals anymore," one tweet said, according to screenshots, while another tweet said "F--- royals."
The men and woman were arrested under the country's Sedition Act, which was introduced in 1948, when Malaysia was under British colonial rule.
The act currently bans any act, speech, or publication that criticizes the government or the rulers of Malaysia's nine states, also known as sultans. It carries a maximum punishment of three years in prison for first offenders.
Human rights activists have accused the government of expanding the scope of the law in recent decades, the BBC reported .
Inspector-General Tan Sri Mohamed Fuzi Harun warned people to avoid criticizing Sultan Muhammad V, who served as king or Yang di-Pertuan Agong because they could "trigger a negative perception towards the country's Royal Institutions."
The arrests come after the Malaysian government promised to curtail the Sedition Act last May, then decided to restore the law later that year.
Then-candidate Mahathir Mohamad had promised to curtail the strict, colonial-era laws before he won the general elections in May 2018, the South China Morning Post reported .
Gobind Singh Deo, the communications and multimedia minister, said in October that the cabinet decided to suspend the act and was preparing a bill to repeal it completely.
But when violent protests broke out in December over the proposed relocation of a temple, the government decided to restore the law instead.
Now it's even proposing introducing a new law criminalizing insults to the government and monarchy, with heavier punishments. It's not clear what these punishments will be.
On January 10, legal affairsminister Liew Vui Keong said the government is considering amending current law, or introducing new ones, to "protect" the country's rulers from insults, the Malay Mail reported.
He said the changes could bring in heavier punishments for "irresponsible" people that insult the country's royals, the newspaper reported.
"We are looking into probably the punishment side, because at this moment, the punishment section for certain offenses against the monarchy is a bit on the low side," he said.
Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch, said that this would threaten freedom of expression in Malaysia.
"Malaysia's government is not only delaying revoking abusive laws, but is even considering enacting new laws that curtail human rights," Robertson said.
"The proposed law on the monarchy would add to the laws already restricting free expression in Malaysia," he said.
