Kuala Lumpur: Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil said today that Facebook leads other social media platforms when it comes to complying with Malaysian laws, along with other platforms under Meta such as Instagram and WhatsApp.
However, he also singled out Facebook as a platform where online scams run rife, while others providers were slow to take action on cyber crimes happening on their platforms
“This is why from yesterday the MCMC issued a letter of instruction to social media platforms to get feedback regarding the issues.” he told the press in a post-Cabinet meeting press conference at his ministry here.
“The biggest problem with Facebook is how this platform continues to be misused by a number of criminals to steal our savings through scams,” he added.
Fahmi listed out the compliance rate of each social media platform towards the Malaysian laws:
Facebook — 85 per cent
Instagram — 88 per cent
WhatsApp — 79 per cent
TikTok — 76 per cent
Telegram — 65 per cent
X (formerly Twitter) — 25 per cent
The laws that they are disobeying vary from Personal Data Protection Act (Act 709) to Anti-Money Laundering, Anti-Terrorism Financing and Proceeds of Illegal Activities Act (AMLATFPUAA) 2001 to Communications and Multimedia Act (Act 588).
Meanwhile, he said the nature of harmful contents by each social media platform ranged from online gambling, scams, cyberbullying, harmful Artificial Intelligence, 3R issues, child pornography and piracy.
Fahmi said he will meet a number of social media platform representatives in Singapore next week.
“They stated that they are ready to meet and understand the government’s stance and strive to fix the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, Fahmi declared war on cyber crimes, saying that Malaysian authorities will now take immediate action to strengthen the aspects of investigation and prosecution for online crimes.
“It has been informed to the Cabinet that among the three things that most plague the aspect of cyber crime are scams, cyber bullying and also sexual crimes against children, especially paedophilia. The three security threats to the people cannot continue,” he said.
Based on this rising issue, Fahmi said the Cabinet today decided that the police, the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC), and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will take further action.
“We decided that the police, AGC, and MCMC will examine and will take immediate action to strengthen and coordinate aspects of investigation and prosecution for cyber crime,” he said.
Yesterday, Fahmi told messaging providers such as WhatsApp and Telegram to crack down on criminal activities on their platforms.
He said this was to ensure a safer space for Malaysians, especially parents and teachers, amid complaints of sexual grooming, pornography distribution and online scams.
Based on statistics from the police’s Sexual, Women, and Child Investigations Division provided to Malay Mail in January, out of a total of 18,326 child victims of nine different types of sexual crimes in Malaysia reported to police in 2018 to November 30, 2023, half of them or 9,203 victims were aged 13 to 15, while nearly a quarter or 4,354 victims were aged 16 to 18.
In March, Deputy Home Minister Datuk Seri Shamsul Anuar Nasarah told Dewan Negara that a total of 34,497 cases of online scams involving losses of RM1.218 billion were reported nationwide in 2023.
