KUALA LUMPUR: A meeting between Putrajaya and social media giant Meta has raised serious concerns over online gambling, scams, fake news, 3R (race, religion, and royalty) content, and the sale of illegal products such as drug-laced vapes.
Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil said Meta, which had previously failed to fully cooperate with the government, has assured that it would step up efforts to tackle unlawful content more effectively.
Meta is the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
“The meeting focused on critical issues involving Meta platforms, particularly Facebook, including online gambling activities, scams, the spread of false news, 3R content (religion, race, and royal institution), as well as the sale of prohibited products such as e-cigarette liquids containing drugs.
“As of Sept 19, a total of 168,774 requests for content removal had been submitted to Meta for Facebook alone.
“This figure represents 59 per cent of all content removal requests across social media platforms, making Facebook the platform with the highest number of complaints,” he said in a statement today.
He added that of the total, 120,127 requests were related to online gambling, but only 114,665 pieces of content were removed.
“Meanwhile, for scam-related activities, out of 37,722 removal requests submitted, 36,918 were taken down.
“The remaining content continues to circulate on Facebook, raising serious concern,” he said.
According to police statistics, e-commerce fraud cases across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from 2023 to August this year, recorded total losses of more than RM248 million, involving 18,128 cases.
“These figures indicate that Meta still fails to fully cooperate in combating cybercrime.
“This has impacted the authorities’ efforts to protect the public from the growing threat of online criminal activities,” he said after a meeting with Meta’s representatives today.
Fahmi earlier attended a session with Meta at the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), which was also attended by federal police Criminal Investigation Department (CID) director Datuk M. Kumar, Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID) director Datuk Rusdi Mohd Isa, and representatives from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Home Ministry and the Finance Ministry.
Officials from the National Anti-Financial Crime Centre and the National Cyber Security Agency were also present.
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