MELAKA: Thailand, Brunei and Cambodia want to join Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore in a common stand on social media giants, a move that will make it harder for platforms to resist new rules, says Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil.
Fahmi said closer cooperation between Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore was already bearing results.
"We found that Thailand, Brunei and Cambodia also want to move in step with Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
"We find that the Southeast Asian region will move in the same direction," he told reporters after the “Safe Internet” campaign at Multimedia University (MMU) in Bukit Beruang here on Sunday (Nov 1).
He said a common regional position would help because platforms look at the entire market when deciding on measures.
"If the entire or majority market in Southeast Asia starts talking about the same things, then it's easier for them to implement," he said.
Fahmi said he and his counterparts from Indonesia and Singapore agreed during a meeting in Bali that the countries needed to work together.
He said the countries had also taken note of recent cases in New Mexico in the United States and drew lessons from how Australia implemented its restrictions.
Fahmi said much of this was made possible by the Kuala Lumpur Declaration adopted at the Asean Summit in October last year.
Fahmi was in Bali from Oct 19 for Bali Tech Week 2026, where he held talks with Indonesian Communication and Digital Affairs Minister Meutya Hafid and met Singapore's Minister for Digital Development and Information Josephine Teo.
Separately, Fahmi said the Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) would present a report at an event organised under MCMC on Nov 25.
He said he had been shown early results of MCMC's efforts to reduce scams, but the figures would be made known then.
MCMC and GASA exchanged a memorandum of understanding in May.
Fahmi also said the Safe Internet campaign would be refreshed every year to keep up with new scam methods and platforms such as Threads, which did not exist when the campaign began.
