Telegram flagged for poor compliance on harmful content removal

Summary

• Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil instructs MCMC to meet Telegram reps over its sub-50pct compliance rate in removing harmful content.

• Fahmi says out of all social media platforms, Telegram is the least responsive to MCMC’s requests for takedowns.

MCMC has been instructed to arrange a meeting with Telegram representatives, following the latter recording the lowest compliance rate with requests to remove harmful online content.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said among all social media platforms, Telegram was the least compliant with the commission’s applications seeking to remove specific content.

He noted that Telegram had only adhered to “less than 50 percent” of MCMC’s requests.

“I have ordered MCMC to call Telegram for a meeting next week to discuss the issue,” Free Malaysia Today quoted the minister as saying after an event in Pantai Dalam today.

He added that as of June 24 this year, MCMC had flagged 1,188,528 harmful postings across various social media platforms.

However, only 173,642 of its requests for such content to be taken down were complied with.

“Of this number, 51 percent of the content removed were online gambling ads while 24 percent were online scams.

“We will take strict action to ensure Malaysians do not become victims of cybercrime,” Fahmi stressed, reiterating that while MCMC can submit requests, the platforms have a responsibility to ensure harmful content cannot be accessed.

Civil action

On June 19, MCMC said it had filed a civil action against two channels on the Telegram platform, namely “Edisi Siasat” and “Edisi Khas”.

The commission had also applied for and successfully obtained an interim injunction order from the High Court to stop the dissemination of content uploaded by the channels, which the commission claimed had the potential to erode trust in public institutions and affect public order.

MCMC added that the first-of-its-kind action against Telegram, an Application Service Provider (Class) licensee, came after the platform’s “serious failure” to address the repeatedly reported content.

Edisi Siasat, a whistleblower channel which had nearly 1.18 million members, is no longer accessible in Malaysia.

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