Minister Fahmi Fadzil stresses importance of harmony between news outlets and social media platforms

 Communications and digital minister, Fahmi Fadzil has reiterated the importance of news outlets being treated fairly by social media platforms.

Reported by The Star, he stated that there needs to be greater unity between media organisations and social media platform operators, especially at the organisational level.

After a dialogue with members of the state media fraternity, reported by The Star as well, Fahmi told reporters that he hopes for a stronger relationship with social media operators in order to facilitate freer and amicable discussions.

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One of the prominent concerns voiced during the dialogue with Fahmi was the issue of copyright infringement that has a larger bearing on social media users. In response, Fahmi said that he and his ministry will be looking into the entire ecosystem of digital usage to iron out the matter, adding that these challenges are ubiquitous and faced by numerous governments.

For instance, in France and Australia, Google and Meta are required by law to remunerate local media outlets if their articles appear in online search results or on Facebook newsfeeds. Canada is currently in the process of formulating a similar legislation.

Fahmi has proactively taken steps towards ensuring a safer user experience for Malaysians on social media platforms. 

Earlier this year, Fahmi took a strong stand against misinformation and hate speech, causing TikTok to remove over 650,000 videos that violated community guidelines. Fahmi had called the platform out for political advertising and provocative content.

Moreover, Malaysian social media users have fallen victim to data leaks as of late. In January this year, he asked two agencies to look into the data leak that compromised the personal data of around 13 million account holders. The issue was brought to the minister’s attention by a twitter user who tagged the minister in tweets about the leak.

The leaks involved information from Maybank, the satellite broadcaster Astro, and SPR. The minister responded saying that he will direct the issue to CyberSecurity Malaysia and the Personal Data Protection Department to investigate “whether the data leak involving the various parties had really happened, and to take action according to the law”.

Seen by A+M, the user included in his tweet that there were around 13 million user information from Maybank, the Election Commission and Astro that was leaked, along with photos that included the account holders’ full name, identity card number and contact information.

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