Malaysia Asks Meta And TikTok To Increase Monitoring Of Hazardous Content

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government faces accusations of resigning from its promise to protect free speech. (photo: x @bernamedotcom)

JAKARTA - The Malaysian government, on Tuesday 9 April, urged Facebook operator Meta and short video service TikTok to increase monitoring on their platform. The neighboring country government reported a sharp increase in social media content that cost this year.

In the first three months of 2024, the government referred 51,638 cases to social media platforms, including Meta and TikTok, for further action. This figure is an increase from 42,904 cases recorded over the past year, communications regulators and Malaysian police said in a joint statement.

They did not specify the type of content reported, but said the move was part of an effort to limit the spread of harmful content online, especially those related to race, religion and empire.

TikTok, which is owned by China's ByteDance, and Meta is also required to limit content showing coordinated authentic behavior, or those related to illegal online financial fraud and gambling, the agency said.

The issue of race and religion is sensitive in Malaysia, which has a significant majority of Muslim Malays, as well as the significant ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities. The country also has laws prohibiting provocative comments or insults to its monarchy.

Malaysia has stepped up surveillance of online content in recent months, in which Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's government faces accusations of stepping down from its promise to protect free speech. The government has denied accusations of oppressing diverse views, saying it needs to protect users from online harm.

On a separate note, Meta and TikTok limited the number of posts and social media accounts in Malaysia in the first six months of 2023, as the government's demand to remove content increased, data published by the companies last year showed.