Netizens on Twitter have greeted the recent censorship of images of pigs with a mix of ridicule and dismay today.

“Later, people would accidentally eat pigs because they don’t know how pigs look like, ain’t it?” said one user tweeting under the pseudonym Acat.

Meanwhile, lawyer and human rights activist Fadiah Nadwa Fikri tweeted, “I wonder how faith of how many Malays have been swayed as a result of seeing a pig’s face.

“Like cats, pigs too have the right to have their photos taken to show their cuteness.”

The tweets came after reports emerged that the faces of pigs appearing in photos on the Malaysian edition of the International New York Times today had been blacked out.

The photos, which appeared on the front page and on page 19, accompany an article about increasing consumer demand for pasture-raised pigs due to concerns over the welfare of their stall-raised counterparts.

“If there are picture of nudes or like this we will cover. This is a Muslim country,” an unnamed spokesperson from the printing company KHL Printing Co was quoted as saying in The Malay Mail Online.

The spokesperson added that the practice have gone on for some time, but it did not receive explicit instructions to censor the photographs.

Pigs are considered ‘unclean’ in Islam and Muslims are forbidden to consume it. Muslims who have touched pigs also need to undergo ritual purification.

Other selected tweets found online include:

Orfeus
Take it in good faith. The pig’s face is censored because it does not want its identity to be exposed. Privacy must be respected, even that of animals.

Ojamoja
Later on the Year of the Pig (on the Chinese calendar), IKEA cannot display pigs on their advertisement by the highway eh?

Ibnu Zahar
Want to attract urban Malays they say. Even pictures of pigs they want to censor. Cat p**p government.

Mediha
It is not haram to see pigs. It is just haram to eat it, and need to purify if touched. Duh.

Sarawak Update
What did the pigs do wrong? Bribery? Swindling the people’s money? Please explain.

Hasrul Wahid
Pig’s faces go censored. This is belittling God’s creation. Pigs are God’s creation too!

Latheefa Koya
Perhaps the pigs are underaged.

Pete Teo
Question: Why would God create pigs if it did not want you to see them?

Minion Pat
God forbid Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission should block any searches with keywords related to pig or swine.

Nazri M Annuar
Many countries have settled on the status of pigs. They can focus on other things, such as inventing game consoles or spacecraft.

Umar Razak
It takes one of the online portals to play up the babi issue and voila! People will forget about the Japanese flag stomping. Well played.

Additional reporting by Aidila Razak.