Malaysian minister decries Meta for ‘no remorse’ as scams tap public for US$100 million

The government is set to impose mandatory social media licensing from January 1 in a bid to stamp out scams, online gambling and child sex exploitation targeted at Malaysians.

That will require all social media and internet messaging platforms with at least 8 million local users to sign up to a licence to operate in the country – a regulatory push that has irked tech firms who want control over the legal landscape they operate in.

Malaysia’s government has had a specific problem with Meta – which also owns messaging app WhatsApp – saying it has been the least responsive among the social media platforms used by Malaysians when it comes to requests to take down content linked to scams or online gambling.

“The frustration the administration has had with Meta for the longest time is … we spend so much resources communicating with Meta, repeatedly every day, to take down content related to illegal online gambling or scams,” Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil told This Week in Asia in an interview.