KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) have taken down 308 instances of pornographic content and 109 pieces of threatening content from social media platforms between Jan 1 and June 1 this year.
In a parliamentary reply, the Communications Ministry said the action was in collaboration with platform providers such as Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram, TikTok, and others.
During the same period, a total of 549 pornographic websites were blocked.
The enforcement actions were based on proactive online monitoring by MCMC as well as public complaints.
The ministry said this in response to V. Ganabatirau (PH-Klang) who asked about the ministry's plan to curb the number of pornographic and gory content from the dark web that had been increasing in Malaysia.
The ministry, via MCMC, is always committed to enforcing actions against any online content identified as violating Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which prohibits content that is pornographic, obscene, false, threatening, or malicious to cause hurt, harass, threaten, or disturb others.
Meanwhile, in response to Zulkifli Ismail (PN-Jasin), the ministry said a total of 815 online gambling websites had been blocked from Jan 1 to June 6.
The move was based on official requests from the police under the Common Gaming Houses Act 1953.
Over the same period, a total of 39,935 social media content have been taken down by platform providers based on requests made by MCMC under the Communications and Multimedia Act.
Zulkifli had asked about the stern actions taken by the ministry to address the proliferation of online gambling, which is currently easily accessible to people of various ages.
The ministry said the action of removing social media content and blocking websites was carried out against content that violated the law based on official requests from enforcement agencies, as well as information and complaints received by MCMC.
However, the decision to remove social media content rests with the platform providers themselves, based on assessments of community standards they have established.
Platform providers based outside the country are not subject to Malaysian values, societal norms, and laws.