MCMC takes legal action against Meta for failure to take down undesirable content

Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is set to take legal action against tech conglomerate Meta for its failure to cooperate in removing undesirable content from its platforms. Bursa Malaysia, the stock exchange hub of the country, has since expressed support of MCMC’s actions.

According to a statement by MCMC, the significant volume of undesirable contents relating to aspects of race, royalty and religion as well as defamation, impersonation and online gambling. In response, MCMC reached out to Meta to remove such seemingly harmful content from its platform, which the platform failed to do.

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“Meta’s response which has been sluggish and unsatisfactory, has not met the urgency of the matter and has led to increasing public concern and scrutiny. As there is no sufficient cooperation from Meta, MCMC has no option but to take definitive steps or legal action against Meta as a measure to ensure that people are secure and protected in the digital sphere,” the statement added.

MCMC went on to justify its actions by stating that they are necessary in promoting accountability for cybersecurity and enhancing consumer protection against online harms, including fraudulent activities and scams.

The organisation described itself as utterly intolerant towards any continuous and escalating abuse of online platforms and telecommunications, malicious cyber activities or content that threatens racial stability, social harmony and defies respect for the country’s leadership.

According to the Malay Mail, Meta said in a report in 2022 that it has identified and removed over 600 accounts linked to the Royal Malaysian Police across all its social network platforms for violating the policy against “coordinated inauthentic behaviour”. 

Most of the accounts were alleged to be part of a “troll farm” to corrupt or manipulate public discourse using fake accounts.

Bursa Malaysia expressed its support of MCMC’s actions stating that it has been the target of scams with ill-intentioned impersonation of Bursa Malaysia and its management on social media platforms – in particular Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, its Chief Executive Officer.

“Despite submitting recurring take down reports that establish a very simple and clear pattern of impersonation, we are very concerned that incidents of the same nature continue to occur. We need the relevant entities, including Meta, to put in place algorithms or checks to prevent, or quickly detect and put a stop to these blatant scams, which thrive on identity theft and fraud,” said Datuk Muhamad Umar Swift, Bursa Malaysia’s CEO.

According to Bursa Malaysia's statement, MCMC recognised a total of 744 reports on online scams involving Facebook from January to 25 May 2023 were reported. 1 In May 2023, Minister of Communications and Digital, Fahmi Fadzil also called out the slow response time by Meta at detecting scams.

MCMC has been on the ball with addressing matters of fraud as of late. Recently, Telegram agreed to co-operate with MCMC and the country’s enforcement authorities to curb cyber fraud. In a statement by Minister Fahmi, he shared that Telegram has been an alarming source of criminal cases such as fake investment fraud, pedophilia and pornography to name a few.

Fahmi has also noted that the total losses incurred by Malaysians from January 2020 to May 2023 from various fraudulent activities on Telegram has amounted to RM45 million. He reiterated his firm view that messaging and social media platforms are to adhere by Malaysian laws.

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