Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil said today that Meta and X are not doing enough to curb cyberbullying, scams, and harmful online content on their platforms. He made the statement during the launch of guidelines for reporting and sharing suicide-related content at the Cybertorium Star Tower, Petaling Jaya, today. So, what should you know about it?
For your information, the guidelines were published by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Content Forum (CMCF). According to Fahmi, CMCF has been asked to engage with Meta and X as well as other industry players, but so far, they have refused to join. So far, only TikTok has voluntarily joined CMCF, an industry initiative that operates without government intervention, unlike the licensing of social media platforms announced last year.
According to data from the National Scam Response Centre (NSRC), as of August 2024, a total of 122,603 complaint calls have been received by the NSRC since its establishment in October 2022. According to the Ministry of Finance (MOF), the types of complaints received are for fraud and advisory services to the public, with a total reported loss of RM371 million.
Last year in Singapore, more than half of online scams were committed through Meta's platform. Although Meta said it deleted 2 million accounts involved in pig slaughter scams last year, the issue still persists and has become a problem in the Southeast Asian region.
As of March this year, only Telegram, TikTok, and WeChat have received social media operating licenses effective January 1, 2025. Meta, which operates Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, has only expressed interest in meeting with MCMC to discuss a license application. Google previously did not agree to YouTube being categorised as social media. Finally, X insisted that they do not have 8 million users in Malaysia, which would require a license to be applied for.
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