KUALA LUMPUR: Social media platform TikTok has not been proactive and serious in addressing prior concerns including curbing cyber bullying, says the Communications Minister.
Datuk Fahmi Fadzil, at a press conference after a meeting with TikTok officials, said that he was of the view that the social media platform has not seriously addressed several matters of concern despite promising to do so.
“Generally speaking, I am very displeased with their behaviour in addressing several issues that we had raised before. As an example, when the cyberbullying of Rajeswary Appahu, also known as Esha, occurred, they promised that moderators monitoring content, including on TikTok livestreams, would be increased.
“However, during this meeting, they failed to state how many moderators have been added to evaluate these types of content in Tamil. We have asked for figures but they have continuously failed to do so.
“Failure to address this issue can lead to legal action and I leave it to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to determine what actions can be taken,” he said.
He also noted that many Malaysians under the age of 13 are still able to open accounts on the platform despite it being against its own guidelines.
“In reality, it still happens. I have seen children as young as Primary One pupils with accounts,” he said.
The minister said that there must be an age verification mechanism on the platform as practiced by other countries.
When asked if a ban of the platform will be considered if the platform refused to comply, he said that there will be no bans.
“There are benefits from the people using this technology but at the same time, there are things that we are worried about such as paedophilia.
“I’m giving them time to assess the request and issues raised by the Criminal Investigations Department, the Commercial Crimes Investigations Department and the MCMC,” he said, adding that similar meetings will be conducted with Meta and X as well as each have their own set of issues.
According to ministerial statistics, the platform had taken down 76,002 items of fake news content between Jan 1 and Aug 31.
“That means this is a 86% takedown rate and these takedowns are done based on their guidelines,” he said.
