Malaysia mentioned on Friday it should take authorized motion in opposition to Fb dad or mum Meta Platforms for failing to take away “undesirable” posts, the strongest measure the nation has taken up to now over such content material.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration has vowed to curb what it calls provocative posts that contact on race and faith since coming to energy in November after a intently fought election within the Southeast Asian nation that has led to an increase in ethnic tensions.
Fb has just lately been “stricken by” a big quantity of undesirable content material referring to race, royalty, faith, defamation, impersonation, on-line playing and rip-off commercials, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Fee mentioned in a press release.
It mentioned Meta had did not take ample motion regardless of its repeated requests and that authorized motion was needed to advertise accountability for cybersecurity and to guard shoppers.
Meta didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Requested what authorized motion it’d take, the fee mentioned in an emailed assertion on Saturday that permitting abuse of community services or utility companies might be offences underneath Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The legislation additionally permits for officers of the corporate to be charged for “wilfully offering means and aiding felony exercise” if immediate motion just isn’t taken, it mentioned.
Race and faith are thorny points in Malaysia, which has a majority of Muslim ethnic Malays alongside vital ethnic Chinese language and Indian minorities.
Commentary on the nation’s revered royals can be a delicate concern, and destructive remarks in the direction of them might be tried underneath sedition legal guidelines.
The motion in opposition to Fb comes simply weeks forward of elections in six states which might be anticipated to pit Anwar’s multi-ethnic coalition in opposition to a conservative Malay Muslim alliance.
Fb is Malaysia’s largest social media platform, with an estimated 60 p.c of the nation’s 33 million individuals having a registered account.
Globally, large social media corporations that embrace Meta, Google’s YouTube and TikTok are sometimes underneath regulatory scrutiny over content material posted on their platforms.
Some Southeast Asian governments have continuously requested that content material be taken down.
In 2020, Vietnam threatened to close down Fb within the nation if it didn’t conform to authorities calls for to censor extra native political content material on its platform. The federal government mentioned final 12 months that social media platforms working in Vietnam had eliminated greater than 3,200 posts and movies within the first quarter that contained false data and violated the nation’s legislation.
In Indonesia, Fb in 2019 took down a whole lot of native accounts, pages and teams linked to a faux information syndicate.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
