MOST of the harmful content that was taken down on social media was in regard to online gambling and scams, said Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching.
Online gambling made up the bulk of cases with over 63%, while scams accounted for about 21% of posts taken down online, she revealed in Parliament yesterday.
Teo was responding to Tasek Gelugor MP Datuk Wan Saiful Wan Jan, of Perikatan Nasional, who said he was concerned that the new requirement to license social media platforms would be abused by Putrajaya against political dissidents ahead of the state and general elections.
Wan Saiful pointed to several social media accounts being taken down by the authorities recently.
“The cases mentioned by YB (Wan Saiful) are social media posts taken down by TikTok due to offences in regard to artificial intelligence.
“It is not a request from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC),” said Teo.
She said in order to create a safe online ecosystem, it is crucial to monitor social media providers.
“As it is, there are many fake accounts impersonating top leaders and, for example, Meta is still receiving advertisements from scammers for profit.
“If we allow this to go on, they will take the approach of prioritising profits over the interests of Internet users,” she added.
Teo said her ministry will be setting up a new platform where users can file an appeal if their social media posts are taken down.
“Complaints can be filed to this tribunal where they can defend their social media posts that were taken down,” she added.
Earlier, Teo said up till Feb 25, three companies that operate WeChat, TikTok and Telegram have received the Applications Service Providers Class Licence (CASP).
She said Meta, which operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, is in the process of applying for the license and her ministry has issued a ministerial notice to allow them to operate while the application is ongoing.
“They are in the process of preparing necessary documents for the application process.”
For X and Google, which operates YouTube, Teo said the two have yet to submit their applications to MCMC.
“X is arguing that they don’t have eight million Malaysians on their platform and therefore don’t need the licence.
“That is why the MCMC is conducting its own survey to ascertain the number of users (on X) so that we can counter-argue X,” she said.
The MCMC has, under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588), mandated on July 27 last year that all social media and messaging services with at least eight million registered users in Malaysia must apply for a licence.
The MCMC has said that failure to comply with the rule on the enforcement date constitutes an offence under Act 588 and may result in legal action.
