Malaysia summons Meta again over alleged ad revenue linked to scams and illegal gambling

The regulator wants answers from the tech giant.

Malaysia.- The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has said that it will summon Meta again after it opened an investigation into reports about the tech giant’s revenue from scams, illegal gambling and other banned activities.

Internal Meta documents cited by Reuters suggested the company flagged as much as 10.1 per cent of its annual revenue as connected to “high-risk” ad categories. According to the report, Meta’s platforms may have shown users as many as 15 billion suspected scam ads per day, while internal enforcement only intervened when the company was at least 95 per cent certain that an advertiser was fraudulent.

Meta rejected the report, calling the figures “rough and overly inclusive,” and warning that overregulation could “stifle innovation.”

Between January and early November 2025, Malaysian authorities requested the removal of 157,208 illegal ads and 44,922 scam ads, most of them on Meta platforms. Gambling-related promotions continue to dominate enforcement efforts, with far higher takedown volumes than on rival services such as TikTok, Telegram, or YouTube.

MCMC commissioner Derek Fernandez described the revelations as “serious and disturbing,” adding that tech companies were profiting from criminal activity while public funds were used to police their content. He proposed a “public safety and online-harm rating system” for digital platforms to assess transparency and effectiveness.

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See also: Malaysia summons Meta over report of profits from scam and gambling ads

The regulator wants answers from the tech giant. Malaysia.- The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has said that it will summon Meta again after it opened an investigation into…