Seeking clarification: Dr Wee speaking in Parliament. — Bernama
WITH the proliferation of social media platforms, Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong has questioned whether there are plans to mandate identity verification for users.
To this, Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching explained that since major platforms like Facebook do not require document verification from their users, it would be challenging for the government to enforce such a requirement.
“If social media platforms don’t make identity documents a compulsory requirement, it will not be easy for the government to make it a compulsory requirement,” said Teo during the question-and-answer session in Parliament yesterday.
She added that while future licensing could include this requirement, the government is not pursuing it at this time, preferring to observe how other countries, such as the United Kingdom, Singapore, and those in the European Union, handle similar issues.
Teo noted that both the EU and Singapore have developed their own Code of Industry for social media and messaging platforms, while the UK is in the midst of doing so.
“Verifying identities requires thorough discussions (with local stakeholders),” added Teo.
Dr Wee (BN-Ayer Hitam) also pointed out that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) regulatory framework only requires social media and messaging apps with more than eight million users to apply for an annual license.
He inquired about the government’s plans to regulate providers with fewer than eight million users.
According to Teo, the government set the eight million user threshold after referring to the policies of the UK and India, which have established social media licensing thresholds of five and six million users, respectively.
“Eight million as a threshold isn’t high, as studies show that cyber crimes often occur on popular platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram.
“That is why we want to focus on platforms with over eight million users and we want to see its effectiveness next year,” said Teo, adding that the regulatory framework on social media and messaging apps was gazetted on Aug 1 this year and will be enforced beginning Jan 1 next year.
Teo also addressed concerns raised by Dr Wee about the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), which has urged the government to halt plans for social media licensing.
She clarified that Putrajaya had conducted engagement sessions with AIC and major companies such as Bytedance, Meta, Telegram, Google, X, and Tencent from April to mid-October.
“AIC’s claim that the licensing framework lacked stakeholder engagement is untrue.
“The views of stakeholders had been taken into account in several discussions and engagement sessions to ensure a comprehensive licensing framework,” Teo asserted.
Recently, the MCMC announced that all social media and messaging platforms with at least eight million registered users in Malaysia must apply for a Class License.
Failure to obtain a Class License for Application Service Providers under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 would be an offence.
