KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 15 — Malaysians deserve a safer online ecosystem, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said today to again justify the government’s plan to require major social media platforms to be regulated here.

He said such companies were profiting off Malaysians and refusing to plough money back into making their platforms safe from criminals and disinformation, citing the deadly riots in the UK that were traced back to false anti-immigrant claims spread online.

"We want to make sure scammers, cyberbullies and in particular criminals, no longer misuse the internet to prey on unsuspecting victims. This is why we embarked on a mission to license social media platforms.

"We do not want something similar (the UK riots) to happen in Malaysia. That is why we have taken proactive steps,” he said in his speech at the Huawei Malaysia Supplier Ecosystem Convention 2024 at MITEC here.

On August 3, Fahmi said social media platforms had provisionally agreed to the licensing although none has yet submitted an application.

These include Meta’s Facebook, ByteDance’s TikTok as well as Elon Musk’s X platform, among others.

On August 1, MCMC issued guidelines for all social media and internet messaging services with at least eight million registered users in Malaysia, requiring these to apply for a class licence under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, effective January 1, 2025.

Critics of the move have interpreted it as another tool for censorship and control.