CYBERSECURITY regulators have exposed scammers using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to create a surge in sexually-explicit content and deceptive ads, such as impersonating the Attorney-General’s Chambers on Facebook to dupe victims, says Teo Nie Ching.
The Deputy Communications Minister said the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has identified 274 advertisements on Facebook impersonating the Attorney General’s Chambers over the last 13 days.
“This is a critical issue because these scammers are paying Meta to dupe Malaysians. It is imperative to hold such platforms accountable. They must not be allowed to profit from scammers who are scamming the public,” she said in reply to a question from S. Kesavan (PH-Sungai Siput) during Question Time.
Kesavan had asked the Communications Ministry to state concrete enforcement actions that have been or will be taken to curb the increase in sexually-explicit content on social media targeted at youth.
Teo also noted that it is crucial to address this issue because with the advancement of technology such as AI, there has been a significant increase in the production of explicit content.
“I would like to share with the Dewan Rakyat that the number of explicit content removed through MCMC’s efforts has risen significantly, from 186 cases in 2022 to 1,125 cases as of Dec 1.
“The number of cases involving sexual exploitation content targeting children has also surged from 34 cases in 2022 to 800 cases to date,” she said.
In response, the government has proposed several amendments to the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588), which stipulate that anyone found distributing explicit communications for commercial purposes can be penalised with imprisonment of up to five years, a fine not exceeding RM1mil, or both, among others.
“I hope all Yang Berhormat (YBs) will support this amendment,” she said.
