KUALA LUMPUR: Over 38,000 online posts linked to bullying have been taken down from social media platforms at the request of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) since January 2022, says Datuk Fahmi Fadzil.
The Communications Minister said MCMC had forwarded a total of 50,160 takedown requests of bullying-related posts to social media platforms, with 77% of the requests being successful, as of September this year.
The government spokesperson also revealed that the commission had taken similar action against scam-related content, having submitted 139,880 removal requests, with 133,348 or 95% of the posts being successfully removed in the same period.
“Most of these scams were conducted by fake accounts, of which the identity of the account holder cannot be verified.
“Similarly, posts related to or promoting online gambling were also being shared by these fake accounts.
“The takedowns were conducted based on community guidelines set by each social media and messaging platform, in line with Malaysian laws,” he said at the Dewan Rakyat during Ministry Question Time on Tuesday (Oct 14).
Fahmi added that most of the fake accounts’ activities were also being piloted entirely by AI.
He said the danger was currently the lack of identity verification tools for victims to use when checking for a fake account, particularly for verifying the age of the fake account holder.
“This issue is among the issues being discussed by MCMC representatives with major social media platform representatives in Singapore this week,” he said.
Fahmi added that MCMC was currently developing new subsidiary instruments under the Online Safety Act 2025 [Act 866] to enhance its ability to promote online safety and regulate harmful content in the country.
“This will include new regulations and codes focusing on issues such as online risk management,” he said.
Fahmi was responding to a question from Azahari Hasan (PN-Padang Rengas) on the measures being taken to tackle the increasingly widespread issue of scammers and online bullying.
