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

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By Rozanna Latiff

KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) -Malaysia may not go through with a plan to take legal action against Facebook (NASDAQ:META) parent Meta Platforms following «positive» engagement with the firm on tackling harmful content on the social media platform, communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said in an interview on Friday.

Last month, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it would take legal action against Meta for failing to act against «undesirable» content relating to race, royalty, religion, defamation, impersonation, online gambling, and scam advertisements.

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.

«I don't think MCMC needs at this point in time to initiate any legal action. I think this level of cooperation is very positive,» he said, adding 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 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.

The take-downs, he said, were likely to have been made in response to complaints made by ordinary users for violating social media guidelines.

The outages came as Malaysia prepares to hold regional elections next month that will pit Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim's administration against a