Malaysia rethinks legal action against Meta
Malaysia has decided not to pursue legal action against Facebook parent company Meta Platforms
In June, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) took the decision to proceed with legal action against Meta. The action tackles failings to act against harmfulcontent relating to race, royalt y, religion, defamation, impersonation, online gambling, and scam advertisements.
The decision to cease legal action came after “positive” negotiations with Meta, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil commented in an interview.
Fahmi said Meta had since given a firm commitment to work with Malaysian authorities, to tackle such posts on its platforms. Fahmi added that the government was considering measures such as fines against social media platforms if they failed to tackle harmful content.
Facebook is Malaysia’s biggest social media platform, with an estimated 60% of the country’s 33 million people having a registered account.
Fahmi dismissed concerns regarding increased government scrutiny of online content. Furthermore, he denied issuing orders to take down several opposition-linked news sites and social media accounts in recent weeks.
The takedowns, he said, were likely made in response to complaints made by users for violations of social media guidelines.
The government has no intention to restrict freedom of expression, but content attacking race, religion and royalty would not be tolerated, Fahmi said.
Facebook owner Meta intends to launch a series of AI-powered chatbots with different personality traits, as it grapples with ways to increase engagement across its social media platforms. Meta are playing catch-up to rival companies who already operate chatbots with different personalities. Character.ai, for instance, can generate conversations in the style of Elon Musk and Nintendo’s Mario.
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