OVER 6,000 pieces of false or manipulative content on social media have been taken down since January 2023, says Fahmi Fadzil.
The Communications Minister said social media platform providers took down 6,492 pieces of content from Jan 1, 2023 to March 1 this year – after they were deemed to have breached the platforms’ community standards.
“The content removal was done 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 said a new task force to specifically investigate cases of false information dissemination had also been formed by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and 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 artificial intelligence technology.
Separately, Fahmi said over 1,600 pieces of content deemed pornographic or related to prostitution had also been taken down during the same period.
“The MCMC, with the collaboration of social media platform providers, took down 737 pieces of pornographic content and 895 pieces of content related to prostitution across various platforms including X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.
“The MCMC also blocked 1,272 porn and 150 prostitution sites during the same period.
“The MCMC’s efforts will continue and be based on its own monitoring as well as complaints received,” Fahmi said in a parliamentary written reply also dated March 13.
He was responding to a question from Kamal Ashaari (PN-Kuala Krau) on the ministry’s efforts to curb prostitution online and the rampant spread of “dark side” culture on social media platforms.
