KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 — The government has demanded an apology from Meta over its removal of two Facebook posts by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.
In a statement this evening, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said the demand was made when Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil and Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) chairman Salim Fateh Din met with Meta representatives today.
“This unilateral censorship, without context consideration, has prompted questions about the transparency of Meta’s content moderation policies.
“It also viewed the removal as “an affront to the legitimate struggle of the Palestinian people in their pursuit of justice and human rights,” PMO said.
The PMO also said it regretted Facebook’s restriction of Berita RTM’s live broadcast yesterday of the Free Palestine Gathering at Bukit Jalil, which was organised by Putrajaya.
According to the PMO Meta is expected to issue a statement soon.
A check on the Prime Minister’s Instagram account found that three of his posts on July 31 condemning Haniyeh’s assassination and sharing photos of his meeting with the Hamas leader had been removed from the social media application.
The removal of the posts was accompanied by the caption “Dangerous individuals and organisations”.
This led the Prime Minister’s Office to condemn Meta’s actions, while Anwar on August 1 reminded Meta to stop acting as instruments of the oppressive Zionist Israeli regime.
