KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) made 1,000,696 content removal requests to online platforms between Jan 1, 2025 and Aug 31, 2026, with 935,416 items taken down, Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil said.
He said the removals represented a platform compliance rate of 93%, leaving 65,280 items that had not been taken down following MCMC’s requests.
“From Jan 1, 2025 to Aug 31, 2026, MCMC made more than one million content removal requests to online platforms. Of these, 935,416 items were taken down, representing a platform compliance rate of 93%,” Fahmi said in his opening remarks at the inaugural M360 Asean 2026 in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
He said the remaining 65,280 items showed that a relatively high compliance rate did not necessarily mean that harmful content had been fully removed from online platforms.
“Yet a 93% compliance rate still leaves more than 65,000 (65,280) items that were not taken down following MCMC’s requests. That number matters. Even with a relatively high compliance rate, tens of thousands of potentially harmful items can remain accessible to users.
“This underscores why platform responsiveness, accountability and stronger preventive safeguards remain critical.”
Fahmi said the scale of the challenge was also reflected in the type of content removed, with 592,695 gambling-related items and 227,486 scam-related items taken down.
The two categories accounted for about 88% of the 935,416 items removed, while the remainder involved grossly offensive and false material, illegal advertisements and other offences, he added.
Fahmi said stronger coordinated action was particularly important where children were at risk.
“Since December 2024, four major operations – Op Pedo 1.0, Op Cyber Guardian 2025, Op Pedo 2.0 and Op Cyber Guardian 2026 – have targeted the possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material.”
Across the four operations, 117 arrests were made at 162 locations, with more than 1.47 million digital files recovered, of which 204,934 were confirmed as child sexual abuse material.
Fahmi said platforms needed to take a more proactive approach towards preventing prohibited activities, rather than relying solely on requests to remove content after it had appeared online.
He said some prohibited products could evade platform moderation because sellers deliberately avoided using terms that would identify the products as illegal.
Citing the sale of illegal drugs as an example, including fentanyl-related products, Fahmi said sellers could use alternative terminology that might not be recognised by platforms but could still be understood by prospective buyers.
“They don’t use the scientific name. They don’t write ‘fentanyl, they don’t write ‘drugs’. Instead, they use certain words. If I mention them, the platform will remove those words. They don’t want me to search for them.”
Fahmi said he would continue to monitor platforms to ensure prohibited goods, including illegal drugs, were not sold through e-commerce platforms.
“We will monitor to ensure that prohibited goods, including illegal drugs, are not sold through e-commerce platforms.”
Fahmi also raised concerns over the use of fake accounts to facilitate illegal sales.
“They need to be more proactive, not just in taking things down, because many of these drug sales are actually hidden behind fake accounts,” he said. “We don’t want these platforms to enable fake accounts to be created for the purpose of selling prohibited products or engaging in activities including online gambling and so on.”
Asked whether the platforms had been warned, Fahmi said MCMC had called them in for a meeting on Monday but he had yet to receive a briefing on the outcome.
“We have called them in on Monday, and I have not yet been briefed on the outcome of the discussion,” he said.
“But Malaysia’s position is firm. We will not budge.”
Separately, Fahmi said the government would bring its efforts to combat scam-related crimes to the Cabinet following discussions by a dedicated interagency working committee.
He said the committee had held a series of discussions and he would bring a memorandum to the Cabinet “in the near future” to inform ministers of several decisions.
The committee involves commercial banks, telecommunications companies and digital platforms including TikTok, as well as government and enforcement agencies.
“This committee is unique because, for the first time, we have the involvement of commercial banks, telcos and one of the many platforms, TikTok, in the committee,” Fahmi said.
He added that the committee was examining potential gaps in existing laws and cooperation between agencies involved in investigating scams.
“This includes looking at whether there are gaps in the law or in cooperation between agencies, including the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the Commercial Crime Investigation Department and the parties involved in the investigation process.
“So, in the not-too-distant future, I will bring this to the Cabinet and after that I will announce the outcome,” Fahmi said.
