Malaysia reverses plan to take legal action against Meta over harmful content By Reuters

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<span>© Reuters. Malaysian Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil speaks during an interview at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia July 28, 2023. REUTERS/Hasnoor Hussain</span><br />
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<p>(Corrects spelling of &#8216;conservative&#8217; in paragraph 8)</p>
<p>By Rozanna Latiff</p>
<p>KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysia may not go through with a plan to take legal action against Facebook (NASDAQ:) parent Meta Platforms following &#8220;positive&#8221; engagement with the firm on tackling harmful content on the social media platform, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said in an interview on Friday. </p>
<p>Last month, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it would take legal action against Meta for failing to act against &#8220;undesirable&#8221; content relating to race, royalty, religion, defamation, impersonation, online gambling, and scam advertisements. </p>
<p>Fahmi said Meta had since given a firm commitment to work with Malaysian authorities, including the regulator and the police, to tackle such posts on its platforms. </p>
<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think MCMC needs at this point in time to initiate any legal action. I think this level of cooperation is very positive,&#8221; he said, adding that the government was considering measures such as fines against social media platforms if they failed to tackle harmful content.</p>
<p>Facebook is Malaysia&#8217;s biggest social media platform, with an estimated 60% of the country&#8217;s 33 million people having a registered account. </p>
<p>Fahmi dismissed concerns raised over increased government scrutiny of online content, and denied issuing orders to take down several opposition-linked news sites and social media accounts in recent weeks. </p>
<p>The take-downs, he said, were likely to have been made in response to complaints made by ordinary users for violating social media guidelines. </p>
<p>The outages came as Malaysia prepares to hold regional elections next month that will pit Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim&#8217;s administration against a conservative Malay-Muslim alliance. </p>
<p>The government did not intend to curb freedom of expression, but drew the line at content touching on race, religion, and royalty, Fahmi said. </p>
<p>&#8220;Those who cry out, saying that we are an iron-fisted dictatorship, I think they’re being a tad bit dramatic,&#8221; he said. </p>
<p>Race and religion are thorny issues in Malaysia, which has a majority of mainly Muslim ethnic Malays alongside significant Chinese and Indian minorities. </p>
<p>Malaysia also has laws prohibiting insults against its sultans, who play a largely ceremonial role. An opposition figure was charged this month with sedition for allegedly insulting them. </p>
<p>Separately, Fahmi said Malaysia&#8217;s major telecommunications firms will form the country&#8217;s second 5G network, as part of the government&#8217;s plan to end a monopoly held by state-owned 5G agency Digital Nasional Berhad (DNB). </p>
<p>The firms, which have agreed to take up stakes in DNB and use its network, will split to form the second 5G entity when coverage reaches 80% of populated areas, Fahmi said. </p>
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<br /><a href="https://www.investing.com/news/stock-market-news/malaysia-reverses-plan-to-take-legal-action-against-meta-over-harmful-content-3137627">Source link </a></p><p>The post <a href="https://forextraderhub.com/malaysia-reverses-plan-to-take-legal-action-against-meta-over-harmful-content-by-reuters.html">Malaysia reverses plan to take legal action against Meta over harmful content By Reuters</a> first appeared on <a href="https://forextraderhub.com">Forex Trader Hub</a>.</p>