Malaysia has decided not to pursue legal action against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms over concerns about gambling, sexual content and other ‘harmful content’.
According to Reuters, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil commented in an interview that following “positive” engagement with the firm on tackling harmful content on the social media platform Malaysian authorities might not look into the group’s operations after all.
In June, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it would take legal action against Meta for failing to act against “undesirable” content relating to race, royalty, religion, defamation, impersonation, online gambling, and scam advertisements.
Fahmi said Meta had since given a firm commitment to work with Malaysian authorities, including the regulator and the police, to tackle 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 said, adding that the government was considering measures such as fines against social media platforms if they failed to tackle harmful content.
Facebook is Malaysia’s biggest social media platform, with an estimated 60 percent of the country’s 33 million people having a registered account.
