{"id":777032060,"date":"2025-09-23T10:19:18","date_gmt":"2025-09-23T13:19:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/?p=777032060"},"modified":"2026-04-21T18:54:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T21:54:38","slug":"malaysian-government-urges-meta-to-remove-illegal-online-gambling-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/malaysian-government-urges-meta-to-remove-illegal-online-gambling-content","title":{"rendered":"Malaysian government urges Meta to remove illegal online gambling content"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Communications minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil warns that the government may consider further action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Malaysia.- Communications minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil has expressed concern over Meta’s failure to remove online gambling and scam content from its platforms. He warned that the government may consider further action if cooperation does not improve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The comments come after Fahmi met with Meta representatives<\/a> at the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), attended by senior officials from the Royal Malaysian Police\u2019s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID), Attorney General\u2019s Chambers, Home Ministry, Finance Ministry, National Financial Crime Prevention Centre (NFCC), and National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said: \u201cThe meeting focused on critical issues involving Meta platforms, particularly Facebook, including online gambling, scams, misinformation, 3R content (race, religion, royalty), and the sale of prohibited products such as drug-laced vape liquids.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Fahmi, 168,774 Facebook content takedown requests have been submitted to Meta, representing 59 per cent of all content takedown requests across social media platforms. \u201cOf that number, 120,127 were related to online gambling, but only 114,665 pieces of content were removed. As for scams, 37,722 takedown requests were made, and 36,918 were acted on. The remaining harmful content is still circulating on Facebook, which is highly concerning,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fahmi also cited figures from the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID), which showed that e-commerce fraud cases on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from 2023 to August 2025 involved losses of over RM248m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The minister added: \u201cThe Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with enforcement agencies, will step up monitoring efforts and consider further action if Meta fails to improve its cooperation.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last month, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it had removed 321,012 gambling-related posts<\/a> since January 2022. Deputy communications minister Teo Nie Ching said takedowns carried out under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, also targeted 119,273 posts linked to fraud, 43,585 containing obscene material, 35,420 involving bullying or sexual harassment, and 38,818 flagged as false information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n

\n\t\t\tSee also:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\tSee also:<\/span> Malaysian government to meet with Meta executives on illegal online gambling ads<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Communications minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil warns that the government may consider further action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":17082,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"is_press_release":false,"is_interview":false,"is_opinion":false,"focusai_summary":"Malaysia's Communications Minister, Datuk Fahmi Fadzil, has issued a stern warning to Meta regarding its insufficient removal of illegal online gambling and scam content from its platforms. Citing significant volumes of unaddressed takedown requests and substantial financial losses due to fraud, the government is threatening further regulatory action if Meta's cooperation and content moderation efficacy do not improve. This underscores escalating governmental pressure on digital platforms to enforce local regulatory compliance frameworks.","focusai_entities":"Datuk Fahmi Fadzil, Meta, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission, Royal Malaysian Police, Criminal Investigation Department, Commercial Crimes Investigation Department, Attorney General\u2019s Chambers, Home Ministry, Finance Ministry, National Financial Crime Prevention Centre, National Cyber Security Agency, Teo Nie Ching, Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp","focusai_location":"Malaysia","focusai_target_profile":"ceo_executive (0.8), regulator (1.0), compliance_legal (0.9), operator_casino (0.8), affiliate_publisher (0.9), payments_fraud_aml (0.9), investor_analyst (0.7), supplier_vendor (0.7), journalist_researcher (1.0)","focusai_suggestions":[{"label":"Meta's Regulatory Response","query":"What specific enhancements to Meta's content moderation algorithms and enforcement protocols are anticipated to address the Malaysian government's concerns regarding illegal online gambling and scam content, and what is the projected timeline for implementation?"},{"label":"Impact on Affiliate Marketing","query":"How will the Malaysian government's intensified scrutiny of social media platforms for illegal gambling content influence the compliance strategies and operational frameworks for iGaming affiliates and publishers targeting the Southeast Asian market?"}],"footnotes":""},"categories":[156,16333],"tags":[24834,226,24840],"class_list":["post-777032060","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-regulation-news","category-south-east-asia-news","tag-gambling-ads","tag-malaysia","tag-meta"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777032060","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=777032060"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777032060\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":777032073,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/777032060\/revisions\/777032073"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=777032060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=777032060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/focusgn.com\/asia-pacific\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=777032060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}