June 24, 2024
KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia’s move towards a licensing regime for social media and messaging platforms has stirred concerns of overreach among stakeholders who were privy to proposed plans in recent weeks.
The Anwar Ibrahim administration had said since the move was first mooted in 2023, that the aim is to facilitate revenue-sharing with local content producers such as news media, as well as to stem what authorities deem as harmful and illegal content.
But several industry and civil society representatives who attended the meetings, chaired by regulatory body the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), told The Straits Times that there was little to no mention of digital revenue-sharing.
Instead, proposals presented by the internet regulator, such as pre-emptive action to prevent offences, were met with pushback from the platform owners themselves as well as civil society.
Other ideas being bandied about include a kill switch to summarily take down content deemed egregious, forcing licensees to allow their content moderation and algorithm processes to be audited, as well as to have an entity domiciled in Malaysia that would be subjected to penalties under local law.
“It seemed less an engagement session than a briefing to tell us their plans, which on the face of it widen the potential for abuse,” said one attendee who asked for anonymity as the process is ongoing.
Sources say the Cabinet approved the licensing proposal in April, a month after the Communications Ministry told Parliament that the MCMC was finalising the framework. The plan, first mooted in late 2023, would involve the likes of Meta (which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), Google, TikTok and X as well as a host of other platforms with more than eight million Malaysian users.
The licensing regime had initially been slated to be announced by July 2024, ST was told, but feedback from stakeholders sought since April has likely pushed back the timeline.
“Furthermore, it will take time for the biggest players, especially those without an official presence in Malaysia, to set up shop. We are talking months here,” said an industry executive who attended the briefings.
This comes amid growing concern over freedom of speech, with Kuala Lumpur stepping up online censorship to the point of asking TikTok – the short video sharing app widely seen as the platform where the opposition Perikatan Nasional is strongest – to restrict more content than any other country in the second half of 2023. Malaysia’s 2024 World Press Freedom rankings also dived to 107th from 73rd previously.
Datuk Seri Anwar’s Pakatan Harapan-led (PH) government is also seeking to enact an online safety law to stamp out abusive material against minors and also what it deems as hate speech, cyber bullying and scams. PH has for decades campaigned on a reformist platform promising wider civil liberties, rolling back laws and policies it criticised as draconian.
The online safety Bill will have to gain parliamentary approval. But introducing licences for social media and messaging apps will require only Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil’s signature to remove certain exemptions under an executive order that has been in place since 2000, without any parliamentary debate.
Adding to fears that the government is bulldozing the process is the fact that while the Content Forum – an industry body designated under the Communications and Multimedia Act to self-regulate content across media platforms – has been designated to lead the drafting of a Content Code for licensees, the stakeholder briefings revealed that the MCMC already had a proposed code that included a section on political issues.
However, attendees of the briefings added that they were not furnished with the government’s draft.
Content Forum chief executive Mediha Mahmood told ST the “Content Forum has always appreciated the opportunity to take the lead in establishing content standards and best practices across the media industry”.
“To ensure the success and acceptance of this code, it is essential that the process is inclusive, collaborative and driven by stakeholders. We trust that the authorities will provide the necessary time and space for key contributors to develop a comprehensive and effective code,” she added.
The government has pointed to Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, the European Union and the United Kingdom as examples of countries that have stepped up curbs on online harm.
However, while Indonesia licenses a wide swath of electronic services including payment solutions and search engines, Singapore regulates social media without a licensing regime, largely under the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act and online safety Act.
European nations as well as Australia also have unlicensed regulatory frameworks similar to Singapore. This means that if authorities want to block a platform entirely, an explicit ban would have to be put in place – in some jurisdictions requiring a court order – instead of merely cancelling or not renewing a licence.
Malaysia has seen a surge in harmful content of late, with the MCMC receiving over 3,400 complaints of hate speech between 2020 and 2023. Within the same period, RM3.2 billion (S$922 million) has been lost to online scams.
Online gambling is also estimated to rob the Treasury of around RM2 billion in taxes annually.
In the face of growing criticism that its actions are politically motivated, the MCMC said on June 20 that over 70 per cent of its content removal requests were related to online gambling and scams. A major drive of the licensing regulations is also to have platforms ensure they have sufficient moderation that is cognisant of local languages and contexts.
“I am cognisant that the platforms are not entirely innocent in this matter (of how they act on harmful content). However, it is inevitable that when regulators are given more powers, concern will be raised over potential abuse,” Mr Harris Zainul, deputy research director of state-linked think-tank Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia, told ST.
“For example, whether there should be pre-emptive action to prevent objectionable content – many will feel that’s too Minority Report,” he added, referring to the popular 2002 Tom Cruise movie depicting the arrest of alleged criminals before crimes are committed through the use of precognition.
Having attended an MCMC media licensing engagement session in mid-June, he suggested that “it’s best to let the public judge how both authorities and the platforms are performing by having meaningful transparent reports. These reports must go beyond what is currently reported for effective scrutiny, and include granular details of the complaints and actions taken, if any, and on what basis”.
Neither MCMC nor Mr Fahmi replied to queries from ST as of press time.