Malaysia threatens legal action against Meta

Malaysia threatened to take legal action against Meta on Friday, accusing the tech giant of failing to remove “undesirable” content from Facebook.

The country’s communications regulator said the platform had been plagued by a “significant volume” of harmful posts on issues including race, royalty, religion and online gambling.

It said Meta had failed to scrub such content despite repeated requests and raised the possibility of legal action against the US firm.

“As there has been no sufficient cooperation from Meta, the commission has no option but to take definitive steps or legal action,” the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement.

The body did not specify the exact legal avenue it might pursue.

Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil could not be reached for comment on Friday but echoed the regulator’s statement in a tweet.

“This is due to Meta’s refusal to cooperate in taking down harmful content,” Fahmi said.

Meta could not immediately be contacted by AFP.

The warning comes days after Malaysian authorities met with representatives from messaging platform Telegram as part of efforts to tackle cybercrime.

Fahmi had claimed last month that the company was refusing to cooperate on the subject.

But the minister said after their Monday meeting that Telegram had agreed to work with the government.

Race, religion and royalty are often seen as taboo topics in Muslim-majority Malaysia, with harsh penalties sometimes meted out to people posting content online deemed unacceptable

© 2023 AFP