Malaysia tightens grip on major social media platforms – will it make the internet safer?

Malaysia on Thursday moved to bring some of the world’s biggest social media and messaging platforms under its licensing regime, closing a year-long gap in which several tech giants had operated without formal approval.\nFrom January 1, platforms with more than eight million users in Malaysia are automatically treated as licensed under local law, even if they had not applied, according to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).\nThe shift coincides with the Online Safety Act (ONSA) 2025 coming into force, expanding regulators’ powers to hold platforms accountable for harmful content, online scams and risks to children.\nBecause ONSA’s new safety duties apply only to licensed service providers, deeming large platforms licensed closes a loophole that had allowed companies to operate at scale while remaining outside the law’s reach, analysts said, though they are divided over whether the move will translate into meaningful changes in platform behaviour.\n\n“The deeming of the platforms as licensees is a bold move by MCMC in operationalising ONSA,” Harris Zainul, director of research at the Institute of Strategic and International Studies Malaysia, told This Week in Asia. “The way I see it, platforms have shown their hand throughout the past year by not registering for a licence.”\n“Companies cannot and should not be allowed to operate this way, regardless of whether they are in tech or not,” he added. “Viewed this way, MCMC now has the moral high ground, as they have given the platforms more than a year to be licensed.”\nThe decision affects WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, all of which now fall under Malaysia’s Application Service Provider Class regime and are subject to the same legal obligations as registered operators.\nLocal media, citing police figures, said Malaysia recorded 67,735 online crime cases from January to November 2025, with losses exceeding 2.7 billion ringgit (US$667 million), driven largely by telecommunications scams and e-commerce fraud.\nMalaysia rolled out social media licensing rules in January 2025, but by late last year only TikTok, WeChat and Telegram had obtained licences, MCMC said, while local media reported that Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, X and YouTube remained unlicensed.\nUnder the deeming provision, regulators say platforms that fail to comply with licensing obligations can face fines of up to 500,000 ringgit (US$108,000), prison terms of up to five years, or additional daily penalties if offences continue after conviction.\nWill it work?\nWhether the move delivers real change remains uncertain, as regulators look to overseas examples to gauge how far enforcement can be pushed beyond formal licensing.\nCommunications Minister Fahmi Fadzil has signalled that Malaysia is looking to other countries’ models, particularly Australia’s online safety framework, as it tightens oversight of digital platforms.\n\nOfficials are studying measures such as age verification and minimum account ages, similar to rules Australian regulators began rolling out in December.\nMeta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has been among the most vocal critics of Malaysia’s licensing regime. In late October, the company publicly challenged the framework, saying it already had safeguards in place and was seeking further engagement with authorities.\nONSA sets out specific duties for licensed and deemed-licensed service providers, including risk-based safety measures, stronger protections for children and clearer reporting and assistance mechanisms for users.\n“The idea behind ONSA and similar legislation around the world is to create a set of responsibilities for social media platforms to adhere to,” Harris said. “These responsibilities are intended to affect system design and platform incentives, making interventions to prevent negative outcomes more scalable than content moderation.”\nBut the move is “not really” likely to change how platforms deal with scams and harmful content, said Benjamin Loh, course director for the Bachelor of Digital Media and Communication at Monash University Malaysia.\n“Essentially this was something that should have been done in the first place,” Loh told This Week in Asia. “The government can force companies to be regulated without the need for licensing.”\nHe said Malaysia has tended to judge success by how platforms respond to takedown requests, and licensing has not materially changed that behaviour.\n“It’s only when the government is willing to hold these companies accountable that we’ll see actual change,” Loh said, adding that Malaysia still lacks independent metrics to measure whether enforcement is working.\n