The Minister vs Meta: battle over Malaysia’s social media licence heats up

Malaysia says large social media platforms must apply for a regulatory licence by January 1 as it bids to curb rampant online scamming, cyberbullying and the sharing of sexual and paedophilic content.

But open internet advocates have warned the plan also risked handing the state too much control over the digital space.

Meta’s director of public policy for Southeast Asia, Rafael Frankel, this week gave his company’s fullest rejection of the plan so far saying Malaysia did not “need a licensing regime in order to take online safety seriously”.

In the interview with Reuters, Frankel argued the proposal lacked clear guidelines and needed years for social companies to establish, instead of the few months Malaysia had given.

He warned that the timeframe also posed a risk to Malaysia’s digital ambitions as the hasty law could “inadvertently cap innovation and digital economic growth”.

But Malaysia’s Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil hit back late Thursday, pulling few punches as he accused Meta of “giving more time to scammers and paedophiles”, telling them to “get on with it”.

“We received reports from the public on the existence of Facebook groups for paedophiles, some with hundreds of members, some with tens of thousands of members,” the minister said on Thursday, adding that some have been operating for years without being taken down.