Malaysia stated on Friday it should take authorized motion towards Facebook father or mother 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.
Facebook has lately been “plagued by” a major quantity of undesirable content material regarding race, royalty, faith, defamation, impersonation, on-line playing and rip-off ads, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission stated in an announcement.
It stated Meta had did not take adequate 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.
Asked what authorized motion it would take, the fee stated in an emailed assertion on Saturday that permitting abuse of community services or utility providers might be offences beneath Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The legislation additionally permits for officers of the corporate to be charged for “wilfully providing means and aiding criminal activity” if immediate motion shouldn’t be taken, it stated.
Race and faith are thorny points in Malaysia, which has a majority of Muslim ethnic Malays alongside vital ethnic Chinese and Indian minorities.
Commentary on the nation’s revered royals can also be a delicate challenge, and adverse remarks in the direction of them might be tried beneath sedition legal guidelines.
The motion towards Facebook comes simply weeks forward of elections in six states which are anticipated to pit Anwar’s multi-ethnic coalition towards a conservative Malay Muslim alliance.
Facebook is Malaysia’s greatest social media platform, with an estimated 60 % of the nation’s 33 million individuals having a registered account.
Globally, huge social media corporations that embody Meta, Google’s YouTube and TikTok are sometimes beneath regulatory scrutiny over content material posted on their platforms.
Some Southeast Asian governments have often requested that content material be taken down.
In 2020, Vietnam threatened to close down Facebook within the nation if it didn’t comply with authorities calls for to censor extra native political content material on its platform. The authorities stated final yr 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, Facebook in 2019 took down lots of of native accounts, pages and teams linked to a pretend information syndicate.
© Thomson Reuters 2023
