KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — The government’s move of all social media providers with over eight million users to have the Application Service Provider (ASP) C Licence is a milestone for the country’s online regulation, Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) commissioner Derek John Fernandez said.
He described the licensing requirement as a major achievement in enhancing online safety and regulation approaches.
“The guidelines here are designed that people who are licenced by us, we can provide certain level of security by pushing the onus on them to make sure they are patrolling, they’re understanding the complaints coming, they investigate it and they stop and block it.
“The self-regulatory model is going to go away and the regulation now, in my opinion, should be protecting every one of you. MCMC is working hard on that against tremendous odds to get the licensing and to get big social media providers to license is an achievement itself,” he said.
Derek shared his insights during a dialogue session entitled ‘International Cooperation in Online Regulation: Reflections on Practice’ at the International Regulatory Conference (IRC) 2025, here today.
He added that social media users should be aware of how their personal data is used and take responsibility for protecting it.
“Your data should not be sold. You should have a right to know where your data is going to, to whom it is going to and many of you don’t realise that the information in the picture you share on social media like your child’s face, your address, your vehicle number and a whole lot of information is being bought by people whom I don’t know, the government doesn’t know, we don’t know.
“So all those telecomunications services and much like my counterparts in Brazil and Indonesia, we manage the utilisation of those facilities to make sure it does not hurt the customer, the subscriber and our citizens,” he added.
Themed ‘Leaping into the Quantum Frontier: Regulation and Innovation in the Tech Era’, the conference was launched by Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil this morning.
In press conference held earlier today, Fahmi shared that MCMC has processed 4,699 content removal request related to online gambling and scams as of Jan 1 to today.
The two-day conference held from Jan 7 till Jan 8, hosted by MCMC brought together industry leaders, policy makers and global experts from ASEAN, Australia, United States, Saudi Arabia and other regions.
The IRC 2025 aims to foster discussions that strike balance between innovation and consumer protection while fostering trust and global cooperation. — Bernama
