KUALA LUMPUR: Tech giant Microsoft has been told to obtain a social media licence for LinkedIn after it was revealed that the platform has more than eight million users in Malaysia.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said LinkedIn had announced in a recent report that it had more than eight million users in the country.
"The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has contacted Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn, to begin the registration process," he told a press conference today.
Meanwhile, Fahmi said discussions with X and YouTube on registering for a licence were still ongoing.
As for Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, Fahmi said the company was in the final stages of obtaining a licence.
On Thursday, Fahmi said Meta was close to securing the Application Service Provider (ASP) Class licence.
It was previously reported that Telegram, as well as Tencent and ByteDance, which own WeChat and TikTok respectively, have secured social media licences.
https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2025/01/1155165/wechat-tiktok-granted...
Google, which owns YouTube, has argued that it is not a social media platform.
However, the Communications Ministry maintains that certain parts of YouTube, like YouTube Shorts, function as social media, similar to TikTok.
Elon Musk's X, meanwhile, claims it has fewer than eight million users in Malaysia, which it says exempts it from licensing requirements.
The licensing of social media platforms with more than eight million users in the country is aimed at ensuring compliance with Malaysian laws and societal norms.