Fahmi said data from the MCMC showed that authorities have been forced to spend a staggering amount of time issuing takedown requests to Meta.
PUTRAJAYA: The government will call Meta to provide a full and detailed explanation following concerns over the company’s handling of scam and illegal gambling content on its platforms, said Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil.
He said data from the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) showed that authorities have been forced to spend a staggering amount of time issuing takedown requests to Meta.
“From January 1 until October 15 this year, the total cumulative time spent by MCMC just to send takedown requests to Meta for scam and online gambling content was equivalent to 22.2 years of work.
“For every takedown request, it takes 30 to 45 minutes. We should be sending Meta the bill for all that work,” he said during his weekly press conference today.
Fahmi said that despite repeated engagements involving MCMC and police commercial crime divisions, Meta has not demonstrated improvements that reflect the severity of the issue.
He stressed that the government expects proactive content prevention, not reactive moderation.
“This cannot continue. Malaysians deserve platforms that are safe. These companies must take responsibility.”
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Fahmi also referred to a Reuters report which claimed that about 10% of Meta’s ad revenue may originate from illegal scam and gambling advertisements.
He noted that he had previously informed Parliament that Meta’s estimated revenue from Malaysia was about RM2.5 billion in 2023.
“If the figure suggested by the report is accurate, then more than RM250 million of that may have come from scam and illegal gambling advertisements,” he said.
“At this time, Meta has only issued a denial saying the figures are out of context. That is not sufficient. We will be calling Meta to provide a full explanation,” he said.
Fahmi said once the Online Safety Act (ONSAR) comes into effect, platforms such as Meta will be legally obliged to prevent harmful online content.
“If they fail, enforcement action can and will be taken,” he said.
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