Malaysia warns TikTok against cyberbullying, deepfake posts

Malaysia warned TikTok on Thursday (Sep 4) to crack down on age restrictions for users in the South-east Asian nation to stop cyberbullying, saying the social media platform could face penalties for non-compliance.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said there had been an upswell of cyberbullying incidents, as well as a recent raft of deepfake scams mainly posted on platforms such as TikTok and Facebook.

“TikTok states that children under 13 are not allowed (to have an account), but the reality is, it’s happening,” Fahmi told a news conference in Kuala Lumpur.

“I am not satisfied with TikTok’s attitude of not being serious in taking action to tackle these issues,” he said after meeting TikTok officials at the Malaysian police headquarters in the capital.

“These are the matters mentioned to TikTok. There needs to be a system of age verification,” Fahmi said.

He added that he “will leave it” to TikTok, Malaysia’s Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and police to flesh out details.

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TikTok, owned by China-based ByteDance, could not be reached immediately for comment.

Malaysia is introducing a comprehensive new set of laws in October to boost online safety, especially for minors.

The Online Safety Act will target social media platforms if they continue to publish harmful content, including cyberbullying and deepfake images used to scam citizens, Fahmi said.

He said Malaysia would give TikTok “time to assess the requests and issues faced by police and the MCMC”.

“They need to understand that fully and report back,” said Fahmi.

Malaysia had “no plan” to ban TikTok, Fahmi said, but added “they must comply with our laws to still operate”.

Malaysia ranked fifth in the world for cyberbullying and second in Asia, behind China, according to the most recent Unicef figures.

The MCMC took down more than 8,700 posts last year related to cyberbullying, compared with around 1,700 the previous year, Malaysian reports said.

Several incidents of cyberbullying were also reported, including that of a young influencer who was found dead at her family home in Kuala Lumpur last year after a sustained campaign of online harassment. AFP