Malaysia is currently mulling over whether or not to impose the social media licensing requirement on professional networking platform LinkedIn. Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said that he has asked the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) to review whether LinkedIn has more than the licensing threshold of eight million users in Malaysia and if they are considered a social media platform.
Moreover, the minister added that the MCMC may contact LinkedIn regarding these considerations. If you have not been keeping up, Malaysia recently passed a new regulatory framework that requires all social media platforms that meet a certain threshold to apply for a licence to operate in the country.
The requirement is supposedly meant to combat rising cases of cybercrime, including online fraud and gambling, as well as cyberbullying and sexual crimes against children by holding operators accountable. The MCMC has, so far, identified eight platforms that meet the threshold, namely TikTok, WeChat, X, YouTube, Facebook, Telegram, WhatsApp, and Instagram.
TikTok, WeChat, and Telegram have successfully obtained the licence, while Meta’s Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are currently still in the process of submitting several documents. On the other hand, X is claiming that it does not need the licence as it does not have over eight million users in Malaysia, although this is being reviewed by the MCMC. The commission is also considering whether or not Google’s YouTube should be labeled as social media, as it does have elements of sharing and commenting.
(Source: The Edge)
