ANN/THE STRAITS TIMES – Facebook owner Meta and China’s TikTok have restricted a record number of social media posts and accounts in Malaysia in the first six months of this year, data published by the firms showed.
This is amid a jump in government requests to remove content.
Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration, which came to power in November 2022 on a reformist platform, has faced accusations of backpedaling on its promises to protect freedom of speech amid increased scrutiny of online content in recent months.
The government denied allegations of stifling dissent online. It said it wanted to curb provocative posts that touch on race, religion and royalty. Between January and June 2023, Meta restricted about 3,100 pages and posts on its Facebook and Instagram platforms from being viewed by users in Malaysia because they were reported to have violated local laws, according to data published in the firm’s twice-yearly Transparency Report in December.
The figure was six times higher than in the previous half-year period and the highest since the company began reporting content restrictions in Malaysia in 2017.
Malaysia’s communications regulator said in a statement late on December 15 that its efforts to request the removal of content on social media platforms were aimed at protecting users from “the significant increase of online harms, and not about stifling diverse views”.
