KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 838 items of online content involving prostitution have been removed from social media platforms by the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching told the Dewan Rakyat on Monday (June 24) that 308 items with pornographic content were also removed from platforms such as X and the messaging application Telegram.

The removal of such content, which violated the platforms' community standards as well as Malaysian laws, was carried out from January to June 1, she added.

“During the same period, MCMC also blocked a total of 549 pornographic websites and 69 prostitution websites.

“In terms of enforcement, a total of seven cases which involved pornographic content are still being probed by MCMC,” she said in response to a question by Datuk Siti Aminah Aching (BN-Beaufort).

Siti Aminah had asked the government to state its plan to combat "dark side" activities online and what actions the ministry would take against account holders offering prostitution services on platforms such as X and Telegram.

Teo also said a meeting between Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil and social media platform representatives will take place in July.

“The ministry is continuously engaging social media platforms to fortify commitments and cooperation (to effectively) monitor and moderate harmful content on social media,” she added.

To a supplementary question, Teo said the ministry had written officially to X objecting to its latest policy allowing the production, distribution and usage of adult content.

“We informed the platform that the policy is harmful and not only against the law but also contradicting the principles of the Rukun Negara.

“We are still waiting for feedback from X for us to make a decision moving forward,” she said.

On June 4, it was reported that X will now formally allow people to show consensual adult content, as long as it is clearly labelled as such.

The move made official a policy already in place when the platform was known as Twitter, before billionaire Elon Musk purchased it in 2022.

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2024/06/24/over-600-objectionable-websites-blocked-since-january-teo-tells-dewan-rakyat