Malaysia seeks accountability from social media firms for online crime to boost compliance rate

Malaysia’s communications minister is in talks with social media firms as the government seeks to draft a new online safety law to compel them to take responsibility for scams, cyberbullying and paedophilia on their platforms.

The strain between authorities and online media platforms surfaced soon after Anwar Ibrahim’s administration was formed in 2022, with Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil summoning TikTok over the proliferation of racially charged content and fake news on the platform during that year’s elections.

A recent cyberbullying case targeting a social media influencer that led to her suicide on July 5 reignited the government’s resolve for the new law.

On Wednesday, communications chief Fahmi said he would travel to Singapore on Sunday to meet representatives of major social media companies to raise Malaysia’s concern over varying levels of compliance regarding the proliferation of online crime on their respective platforms.

“Some are quick to comply, some refuse to comply at all, or take a very long time to respond to [Malaysian] authorities,” Fahmi said.

According to him, the compliance rate across social media platforms is the highest among Meta’s Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp at 84 per cent, 76 per cent on TikTok, and 65 per cent on Telegram.

“The lowest, last in class, is Twitter – or X – at just 25 per cent,” Fahmi said.

These figures are based on whether the platform owners acted on complaints raised by the government over content on the platforms.

The minister added that compliance involved mutual understanding between social media platforms and the government’s Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission.

“The one who ultimately decides to take down any content is the respective platform,” he