MORE than 38,000 online posts linked to cyberbullying have been taken down from social media platforms at the request of the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) since January 2022, says Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil.
He said MCMC had forwarded 50,160 takedown requests of bullying-related posts to social media service providers, with 77% of the requests being successful as of September this year.
He also said similar action was also taken 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.
Fahmi added that most of the fake accounts were being controlled 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 matters being discussed by MCMC representatives with major social media platform representatives in Singapore this week,” he said.
Fahmi also said MCMC is developing new subsidiary instruments under the Online Safety Act 2025 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.
