KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is in contact with TikTok to obtain clarification on 18 local media organisations which were recently blocked, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
He said that according to initial information received from TikTok, the accounts in question were blocked for reporting on a recent molest case at a mosque in Batang Kali involving a young girl.
“The problem is TikTok’s artificial intelligence (AI) itself, here’s a little warning, AI can sometimes go too far and not understand that the media organisation reporting is different from the content produced by ordinary people.
“So I have asked for a discussion to be held in the near future to refine the functions of TikTok accounts owned by the media so that such action is not taken in the future,” he said.
He told reporters after launching the ‘AI in the Newsroom’ course organised by the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama), the first course in a series of AI-related training programmes for media professionals.
Also present were Bernama chief executive officer Datin Paduka Nur-ul Afida Kamaludin, Bernama editor-in-chief Arul Rajoo Durar Raj and Huawei Malaysia chief executive officer Simon Sun.
Also present were Economic News Service deputy editor-in-chief Azlina Aziz, executive editor (acting as deputy editor-in-chief) of International News Service Mohd Shukri Ishak, head of Management and Finance Sharifah Zaini Syed Zain and Bernama Commercial head Mastura Hassan.
It is understood that TikTok accounts categorised under ‘official’ were among those also subject to the restriction.
Elaborating further, Fahmi said the report on the molest case is a normal report as usually done by media organisations and should not be an issue.
“The report should not be a problem. So here I see the AI problem that TikTok needs to explain to us and then also to media companies,” he said.
Fahmi said currently TikTok has increased the use of AI-content moderation which sometimes causes misunderstandings regarding content uploaded on the platform.
“So there I see an opportunity for us to discuss with TikTok to give flexibility or perhaps give a different status to media companies because they are creating reports and we also have our own guidelines or code of ethics so that’s where TikTok needs to understand,” he said.
Meanwhile, Nur-ul Afida hopes that MCMC can help restore the TikTok accounts of all agencies involved since the reports made regarding the issue are not sensitive.
“So I request that this matter be resolved as soon as possible because the content does not involve anything sensitive because we are simply reporting an incident that occurred in our country,” she said.
