KUALA LUMPUR: More than 5,000 online gambling websites have been blocked with the cooperation of internet service providers from 2022 until Feb 1, says Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
Fahmi said 5,025 gambling websites and 224,403 gambling-related posts on social media platforms have been taken down.
“Of this total, 2,906 gambling-related posts, or 93.14% of the cases mentioned were removed from Facebook alone. This also means that Facebook is a major hub for online gambling advertisements.
“This measure aims to ensure that all registered internet messaging and social media platform providers comply with their obligations under Act 588 (Communications and Multimedia Act 1998) and adhere to the Code of Conduct (Best Practices) issued by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).
“It also seeks to enhance accountability for the content and online interactions made available to users,” he said during the oral question and answer session at the Lower House here, on Thursday (Feb 13).
Fahmi said this in a reply to Capt Azahari Hasan (Perikatan Nasional-Padang Rengas) who wanted to know the latest measures taken by the ministry to combat the growing prevalence of online gambling, including monitoring efforts, law enforcement, and collaboration with internet service providers and digital platforms.
In a supplementary question on the government’s effort to take down scam activities that involved the images of icons and influencers, Fahmi said the MCMC is committed to cooperating with the police to take down content on social media.
Apart from that, he said blocking websites and technical assistance such as the provision of information digital forensic analysis have been implemented to expedite investigations related to online gambling offences,” he added.
On the latest development on social media licensing, Fahmi said there are different reactions from the social media platform providers.
He, however, said since the regulations were enforced on Jan 1, this year, there are more cooperation from the providers when taking down content that violates the country’s laws.
“Since we have implemented the licensing regime, there were various reactions from the platform providers including those who tried to delay the process.
“But we also received better cooperation, for example, YouTube (under Google) was found to contain a lot of gambling advertisements. However, we have applied for the content to be removed where 5,167 content was reported.
“Of the total, 5,115 advertisements were taken down, which means while Google is not licensed yet we see better cooperation,” he added.
