PETALING JAYA: Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil has expressed concerns over Meta Platforms Inc’s (Meta) failure to remove online gambling and scam content from its platforms.
Fahmi said if Meta did not improve its content moderation efforts, the government would consider further action against the social media platform provider.
He noted that while Meta had acted on some of the Communications Ministry’s content takedown requests, some illegal content still remained on Facebook.
According to Fahmi, a total of 168,774 Facebook content takedown requests were submitted to Meta as of Sept 19, representing 59% of all content takedown requests across all social media platforms.
Of this figure, Fahmi said 120,127 requests were related to online gambling, but only 114,665 pieces of content were taken down.
“For scam activities, out of 37,722 takedown requests made, 36,918 were taken down.
“The rest remains on the Facebook platform, thus raising serious concerns,” said Fahmi in a statement on Monday (Sept 22).
Meta operates Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp.
At the same time, Fahmi cited statistics from Bukit Aman's Commercial Crime Investigation Department showing that e-commerce fraud cases on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from 2023 to August 2025 involved total losses of over RM248mil.
This figure, said Fahmi, showed that Meta still failed to fully cooperate with the authorities in cracking down on cybercrime activities.
“Nevertheless, Meta guarantees that it will step up efforts and cooperation to ensure that illegal content can be handled more effectively.
“The Communications Ministry and enforcement agencies will strengthen monitoring measures, as well as consider further action if the level of cooperation is not improved by Meta,” he added.
Meanwhile, Fahmi said all social media operators have been told to introduce more effective age and identity verification to keep underage children off their platforms.
“Present systems are still found to have failed to block underage users and protect them from inappropriate content,” he said.
Fahmi said the government would not compromise on digital security issues, adding that all social media platforms must take more responsibility to ensure that illegal content is removed swiftly.
