‘TikTok to curb fake news and more’

PETALING JAYA: Curbing fake news and defamatory material, including “Coordinated Inauthentic Behaviour” (CIB) must be addressed by TikTok, says Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil.

He said these were among the matters raised in a meeting with the social media platform’s top management, led by TikTok’s global vice president Helena Lersch, on Wednesday.

“I emphasised that TikTok needs to operate according to Malaysian guidelines and laws.

“I stressed that TikTok’s compliance with Malaysian laws was still unsatisfactory and must be rectified immediately,” Fahmi said in a statement yesterday.

He added that the operation of the TikTok Shop in Malaysia was also discussed.

Fahmi said TikTok acknowledged that there were weaknesses in their response due to the absence of a representative in Malaysia.

He also said TikTok was told to find a solution to the issue of purchasing advertisements and distributing content on the platform.

This followed complaints from businesses, the public and media agencies, which were deeply affected due to the advertisements being booked directly with the social media platform.

“TikTok has promised to increase cooperation with the Malaysian government. Accordingly, they committed to holding further meetings as soon as possible to resolve these issues,” he said.

On Oct 7, Fahmi said Malaysia would look into the action taken by the Indonesian government to ban ecommerce transactions on TikTok before devising appropriate measures here.

Indonesia had imposed the move to protect small and medium businesses, some of which are operating offline.

Meanwhile, at an event in Shah Alam yesterday, Fahmi said he requested that TikTok meet with the Communications and Digital Ministry and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission at an undisclosed date next week.

At the same time, Fahmi said Malaysia had yet to follow Indonesia’s move to ban TikTok Shop.

“I requested more information from TikTok to understand the full situation. They will reply and we will look into it first.

“Based on the information we receive (from TikTok), we will then make a decision,” said Fahmi.