By Santhia Panjanadan
KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10: More than 65,000 online items remained on platforms after Malaysia’s communications regulator requested their removal, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) made 1,000,696 content removal requests from Jan 1, 2025 to Aug 31, 2026, of which 935,416 items were taken down, representing a platform compliance rate of 93 per cent.
“Yet a 93 per cent compliance rate still leaves more than 65,000 (65,280) items that were not taken down following MCMC’s requests. That number matters. Even with a relatively high compliance rate, tens of thousands of potentially harmful items can remain accessible to users.
“This underscores why platform responsiveness, accountability and stronger preventive safeguards remain critical,” he said at M360 ASEAN 2026 conference here today.
The removals included nearly 593,000 (592,695) gambling related items and more than 227,000 (227,486) scam related items, alongside grossly offensive and false material, illegal advertisements and other offences.
In a media interview later, Fahmi said platforms needed to be more proactive in dealing with prohibited goods, as sellers sometimes used different terms to advertise them.
He cited the sale of illegal drugs, including fentanyl for vaping, saying sellers could use terms other than “fentanyl” or “drugs” that were nevertheless recognisable to buyers.
Fahmi said he checked platforms daily for prohibited goods, with one platform accounting for most of the activity. The platform was called in on Monday, but he had yet to be briefed on the outcome.
“We are firm on this. We will not budge,” he said, adding that platforms must go beyond removing listings by preventing fake accounts used to sell prohibited goods or facilitate online gambling.
On scam crimes, Fahmi said the government had set up a special working committee, which had held a series of discussions and that he would bring a Cabinet note in the near future to facilitate several decisions.
The committee is looking at scams in various forms, including telephone calls and activity on online platforms, and involves commercial banks, telecommunications companies and online platforms including TikTok.
It is also examining possible gaps in existing laws and cooperation among agencies involved in investigations and he would present the matter to the Cabinet soon, after which the government would announce the outcome.
–WE