KUALA LUMPUR: The rapid development of social media and online messaging services since at least 2008 prompted the recent amendment of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 to balance the freedom of expression with the safety of users.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) deputy managing director, Datuk Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin, said that when the law was first introduced, online platforms were omitted from the licensing aspect as the government wanted to encourage innovation and usage, which were still relatively new then.
However, he said that due to the rapid development of online platforms, MCMC analysis shows that some social media platforms, such as Facebook, which were initially intended for social interaction, now host harmful content, including child sexual abuse material, prostitution activities, online gambling promotions, and financial scams.
"Crimes that previously occurred in the physical world have shifted to social media and applications like Facebook and WhatsApp. These harms did not exist in 1998, but now, with technological advancements, such crimes are facilitated by these platforms. It is time to protect users, especially children, to ensure a safer environment," Zulkarnain said during TV3's Soal Rakyat interview.
He added that this called for the significance of the recent amendment of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, which ensures responsibility among the platform providers to maintain control over their platforms, particularly in preventing the growth of criminal activities and ensuring the safety of their users.
On Dec 9, the Dewan Rakyat approved the amendment to the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588), which Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil stated was aimed at providing a safer and more sustainable internet network ecosystem for all users.
Commenting on the social media licensing introduced by the government, Zulkarnain said some users were confused, thinking the licence would also apply to them, thus curtailing their freedom of expression.
Nonetheless, he explained that the licence would only apply to platform providers with more than eight million users, such as Telegram and Facebook.
"Many are concerned that this could be seen as control over freedom of speech. Individuals with five to eight million followers are not required to be licensed; the ones we license are the platform providers. For users with social media pages, they do not need to obtain a licence from MCMC and are not subject to this regulation," he said.
On Friday, Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil announced that the government has identified eight social media and online messaging platforms that will be required to obtain a licence under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 by next year.
He said the platforms included Meta's WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram, Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter), Google's YouTube, Pavel Durov's Telegram, Tencent's WeChat, and ByteDance's TikTok.
He said these platforms had met the threshold of at least eight million users in the country and added that they were not being specifically targeted.
Zulkarnain further stated that the freedom of expression in Malaysia is guaranteed, but it is conditional based on the country's laws as per the Federal Constitution.
Despite the guarantee given to an individual, he said the rights of others to live peacefully among others must also be considered, particularly in the event of a clash of values.
Meanwhile, Zulkarnain also called for social media users to continue upgrading their digital skills in the age of rapid technological development, as criminals would not stop their pursuits despite the amendment of the law.
He said that the advancement of Artificial Intelligence would present more difficulty for users in differentiating legitimate content from illegal or wrong content.
"No matter how good the legislation is, they (criminals) will always find loopholes in the law or system to commit crimes. There will be other unforeseen elements. We should not be complacent just because we have laws now; that does not guarantee safety. The guarantee comes when we enhance our knowledge and capabilities to handle harmful content," he said.