Social Media Licence: Eight-million-user Threshold To Be Reviewed To Prevent Online Harm -- Fahmi

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 22 (Bernama) -- The government will review social media licensing requirements, specifically the eight-million-user threshold, following concerns that online harm can occur even on platforms with fewer users, said Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil.

Referring to the misuse of the Grok artificial intelligence (AI) function on the X app, he said that currently, the X platform is exempt from licensing because the company reported it does not have eight million users in Malaysia.

He said the case involving the app is hybrid in nature, as X is a social media platform while Grok is an AI application.

“Since a fairly significant incident like this has occurred, we will re-evaluate the eight-million-user threshold because online harm can still happen even if the user base is below that threshold… so we are taking a closer look at this matter.

“This is quite a hybrid area and requires the ministry, and specifically MCMC (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission), to examine it to ensure that from a regulatory perspective, online harm issues can be addressed more comprehensively,” he said during the Ministers' Question Time session in the Dewan Rakyat today.

More news to follow.

-- BERNAMA