More than 93 per cent of the content removed was from Facebook.
Malaysia.- Fahmi Fadzil, Malaysia’s communications minister, has announced that from 2022 until February 1 this year, his ministry acted against 224,403 pieces of digital content related to online gambling. Fadzil told a parliamentary session that 93.14 per cent of the content removed (209,006) was on Facebook.
He added that 5,026 gambling websites had been blocked in cooperation with internet service providers since 2022. Fadzil said: “The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) had proactively monitored the platforms to ensure a safe online environment that was free of content that contravened the laws, including gambling.”
The minister said that from January 1, social media and messaging services with at least eight million registered users in Malaysia need a licence from the MCMC. This rule aims to ensure that services follow the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, also known as Act 588. The goal is to make these providers more accountable for the content they share and how people interact online.
Fadzil said: “Since we have implemented the licensing regime, there were various reactions from the platform providers including those who tried to delay the process. But we also received better cooperation, for example, YouTube (under Google) was found to contain a lot of gambling advertisements. However, we have applied for the content to be removed where 5,167 content was reported.
