Malaysia to take legal action against Meta for failing to remove harmful content

Bangkok, Jun 23 (EFE).- Malaysia said Friday that it would take legal action against Facebook’s parent company, Meta, for failing to remove harmful content from the platform.

“The Facebook platform has recently been plagued by a significant volume of undesirable contents relating to the aspects of Race, Royalty, Religion (3R), defamation, impersonation, online gambling as well as scam advertisements,” the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement.

“In response, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has reached out to Meta, parent company of Facebook to have such harmful contents removed from its platform,” it added.

However, MCMC said that despite repeated requests, “Meta has failed to take sufficient action to address the issue of undesirable contents on its platform and has not fully cooperated with efforts to remove such contents.”

“Meta’s response, which has been sluggish and unsatisfactory, has not met the urgency of the matter and has led to increasing public concern and scrutiny,” it added.

For this reason, the commission argues the need for legal action for “promoting accountability for cybersecurity and enhancing consumer protection,” without providing further details on the type of action.

Social networks have often clashed with conservative and, in some cases, authoritarian governments in Southeast Asia, which have urged them to remove content they deem undesirable from their platforms. EFE

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