Last month, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) mentioned it will take authorized motion in opposition to Meta for failing to behave in opposition to “undesirable” content material regarding race, royalty, faith, defamation, impersonation, on-line playing, and rip-off commercials.
Fahmi mentioned Meta had since given a agency dedication to work with Malaysian authorities, together with the regulator and the police, to sort out such posts on its platforms.
“I don’t think MCMC needs at this point in time to initiate any legal action. I think this level of cooperation is very positive,” he mentioned, including that the federal government was contemplating measures equivalent to fines in opposition to social media platforms in the event that they didn’t sort out dangerous content material.
Facebook is Malaysia’s greatest social media platform, with an estimated 60% of the nation’s 33 million folks having a registered account.
Fahmi dismissed considerations raised over elevated authorities scrutiny of on-line content material, and denied issuing orders to take down a number of opposition-linked news websites and social media accounts in latest weeks.
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The take-downs, he mentioned, have been more likely to have been made in response to complaints made by peculiar customers for violating social media tips. The outages got here as Malaysia prepares to carry regional elections subsequent month that can pit Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration in opposition to a conservative Malay-Muslim alliance.
The authorities didn’t intend to curb freedom of expression, however drew the road at content material pertaining to race, faith, and royalty, Fahmi mentioned.
“Those who cry out, saying that we are an iron-fisted dictatorship, I think they’re being a tad bit dramatic,” he mentioned.
Race and faith are thorny points in Malaysia, which has a majority of primarily Muslim ethnic Malays alongside vital Chinese and Indian minorities.
Malaysia additionally has legal guidelines prohibiting insults in opposition to its sultans, who play a largely ceremonial position. An opposition determine was charged this month with sedition for allegedly insulting them.
Separately, Fahmi mentioned Malaysia’s main telecommunications corporations will type the nation’s second 5G community, as a part of the federal government’s plan to finish a monopoly held by state-owned 5G company Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB).
The corporations, which have agreed to take up stakes in DNB and use its community, will break up to type the second 5G entity when protection reaches 80% of populated areas, Fahmi mentioned.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com