Tech giants no longer call social media licensing 'unworkable'

An updated letter by a coalition of tech giants including Google, Meta, Amazon, and Apple protesting the government’s planned social media licensing was toned down compared to the original version.

Instead of calling the licensing “unworkable”, the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC) instead said it would “adversely impact innovation”.

The letter also removed a line saying that due to a lack of consultation “no platform can be expected to register under these conditions”.

However, the rest of the letter’s content expressing its concerns and a call for the government to consider imposing self-regulation on platforms remains unchanged.

The edits, made yesterday, also included reducing the signatories of the letter, from 17 AIC members to six - Google, Meta, Amazon, Apple, LinkedIn, and X.

The dropped signatories included Grab, Yahoo, Pinterest, Spotify, Booking.com, Zalora, Shopify, and FedEx.

The AIC later issued a third letter - also dated Aug 26 - further reducing the number of companies represented to zero, but made no other changes to the letter’s content.

Grab Malaysia issued a statement saying it was not consulted or informed about the letter, and will not be commenting on the new regulations since it does not affect its operations.

Original letter dated Aug 23

Second version dated Aug 26

Third version dated Aug 26

The new framework requires major social media platforms to be licensed in Malaysia by the start of next year if they wish to continue operating in the country without being penalised.

Previously, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said that the platforms had responded positively to the new regulations.

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