KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 — The riots in the United Kingdom that were inflamed by bad actors through social media shows that online misinformation or disinformation cannot be taken lightly, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said today.

Taking note of calls from MPs there for social media platforms to follow the same standards as newspapers and television stations, Fahmi said Putrajaya is also looking at this matter.

“Previously, the MCMC did discuss with its counterpart or similar regulatory body in the UK, namely Ofcom. But I will ask MCMC to contact it again to get their views,” he said in a press conference after the Cabinet’s weekly meeting here.

Fahmi was referring to Malaysia’s online regulator Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission and its British counterpart Office of Communications.

“This gives us an awareness that we cannot take the problem of the spread of fake news lightly,” he said, citing as example the wide circulation of “extreme” materials related to “3R” (race, religion, royalty) on social media platforms after the 15th general election in 2022.

“So in Malaysia, at least, we have held many discussions with social media platforms to ensure they are also proactive and help in restricting the spread of fake news, especially news that try to relate or be related to ‘3R’ issues,” he said.

Fahmi also said the Cabinet had today discussed the matter as there are many Malaysians who are living, studying or working in the UK, and that the Cabinet was told that the situation in the UK is under control and was also looking at the UK government’s efforts to ensure the public’s safety.

As for the Monday meeting with three representatives of social media firm Meta Platforms Inc regarding the removal of several of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s posts on the social media platforms Facebook and Instagram regarding the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, Fahmi said he concluded that Meta’s representatives were “ill-prepared” for the meeting.

Fahmi said this was because Meta’s representatives appeared hesitant and said they had no knowledge when asked about three posts taken down from Anwar’s account, and as these representatives did not come with documents regarding the removal of those posts.

“Although we had around yesterday or a few days ago received feedback from Meta and their commitment to ensure such incidents would not repeat, we were also told that the community guidelines, especially for Facebook, are frequently changed or improved, sometimes after a day,” he said, adding that this means what had been discussed or informed in that meeting could likely be changed in the future.

But Fahmi said the government had asked Meta to immediately channel information to the Prime Minister’s Office, if there is any information that the Prime Minister’s Office should be aware of.

Fahmi said Meta had given the example of the Arabic word “syahid” — meaning “martyr” — which previously was not allowed on Facebook but was later allowed for use in the Asian or Middle East regions as it is a common word in such regions.

Fahmi said Meta was asked if it had staff who knew the national language among moderators of social media content as many postings in Malaysia such as by the prime minister is usually done in Bahasa Malaysia, but said Meta merely said they have moderators who know the national language and some of the social media content are taken down via artificial intelligence (AI).

“Until the meeting on Monday, we did not get accurate information on what actually caused the content posted on the prime minister’s Facebook and Instagram to be taken down, but Meta said they are ready to continue to discuss, receive feedback and input from the Malaysian government,” he said.

Yesterday, Meta in a statement apologised for an “operational error” where content from Anwar’s Facebook and Instagram pages were removed, and said the content has since been restored with the correct newsworthy label.

https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2024/08/07/fahmi-british-riots-show-that-online-misinformation-shouldnt-be-taken-lightly-mcmc-told-to-discuss-regulating-social-media-with-uks-ofcom/146309