More than 6,000 pieces of online content taken down since January 2023, says Fahmi

KUALA LUMPUR: Over 6,000 pieces of online content deemed false or manipulative have been taken down since January 2023, says Fahmi Fadzil.

The Communications Minister revealed that social media platform providers had taken down the 6,492 pieces of content from Jan 1, 2023 to March 1 this year after they were deemed to have breached the platforms’ community content standards.

“The content removals were done in consideration by the platform providers’ themselves after evaluation was conducted according to their own individual community standards,” he said in a written Parliamentary reply dated March 13.

He also revealed that a new task force to specifically investigate cases of false information dissemination had also been formed between the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and the police.

He was responding to a question from Muhammad Islahuddin Abas (PN-Mersing) on the ministry’s efforts to address the spread of fake content amid the rise of AI technology and usage.

Separately, Fahmi also revealed over 1,600 content pieces deemed pornographic or related to prostitution had also been taken down in the period of January 2023 to March 1, 2024.

“The MCMC, with the collaboration of social media platform providers, has taken down 737 pievces of pornographic content and 895 pieces of content related to prostitution across various platforms including X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

“MCMC has also blocked 1,272 porn sites and 150 prostitution sites during the same period.

“MCMC’s efforts will continue on and be based on the commission’s own self-monitoring as well as complaints received,” Fahmi said.

He was responding to a question from Kamal Ashaari (PN-Kuala Krau) on the ministry’s efforts to curb prostitution online and rampant spread of “Dark Side” culture on social media platforms.