The communications ministry mandates licensed service providers to block high-priority harmful content within 24 hours under the Online Safety Act 2025.
KUALA LUMPUR: The Ministry of Communications, through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), has made it mandatory for licensed service providers to take timely action against harmful online content, including blocking access to high-priority content within 24 hours.
The measure, enforced through the Online Safety (Period) Regulations 2025 under the Online Safety Act 2025 (Act 866), aims to curb the spread of fake news, disinformation and misinformation at an early stage.
“For high-priority content, such as financial fraud, the content must be made inaccessible within 24 hours to enable assessment, verification and further action to be taken,” the ministry said in a written reply in the Dewan Rakyat.
The ministry was responding to a question from Rodziah Ismail (PH-Ampang) on the mechanism for curbing the spread of fake news, disinformation and misinformation, particularly during the critical period before such content becomes widely disseminated.
According to the ministry, from Jan 1, 2022, to May 31, 2026, MCMC submitted 63,215 requests to service providers to remove false content, of which 54,626 pieces of content, or 86%, were successfully taken down.
In addition to enforcing Act 866 and the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, MCMC also utilised artificial intelligence (AI) technology through the launch of the Artificial Intelligence Fact-check Assistant (AIFA) Chatbot on Jan 28, 2025, to help the public verify information more quickly and efficiently.
As of May 31, AIFA, which supports the Sebenarnya.my portal, had processed 197,403 messages at an average of 404 messages per day, with 1,016 fact-check articles published from Jan 1, 2022, to May 31, 2026.
To strengthen digital literacy and preventive measures, the Safe Internet Campaign has been implemented in schools and institutions of higher learning, as well as through 1,938 public programmes involving 2,136,941 participants nationwide as of June 15.
“By combining law enforcement measures, strategic collaboration with platform providers, technology utilisation and digital literacy empowerment, the government is committed to addressing the spread of fake news, disinformation and misinformation more effectively to protect the security and well-being of the country’s digital ecosystem,” the ministry said.
