KUALA LUMPUR: The government has in recent years blocked thousands of websites to prevent access to pornography on the Internet.
In the first eight months of last year, the government blocked more than 1,000 pornographic websites.
But such explicit content is still easily accessible on social media and social messaging platforms.
Primarily contributing to this are some platforms that allow sexually explicit content, including graphic images and hardcore pornographic videos, to be uploaded and shared.
X has user settings to prevent "sensitive content" from being viewed, but this can easily be changed.
Telegram has no such "filter".
Finding explicit content itself is very easy as any search for pornographic material using commonly used keywords brings up a plethora of explicit posts and accounts.
In some cases, posts may even be tagged with seemingly innocuous hashtags, making them more challenging for automated systems to detect and block, if user settings restrict viewing such content.
In June, X updated its policies to formally allow adult content, allowing users to share sexual content so long as it is consensual and clearly labelled.
This, of course, did not bode well with X users, who described the platform as "embracing" adult content, contrary to their call for its total removal.
On Wednesday, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said X was the platform least compliant with Malaysian laws.
He said X scored a compliance rate of only 25 per cent in the first half of the year, with most of the problems involving cyberbullying and pornographic content.
Fahmi further said that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Attorney-General's Chambers and police would review the issues and take action.
Additionally, he would meet representatives from social media platforms in Singapore on Sunday to address the issue.