Malaysian government urges Meta to remove illegal online gambling content

Communications minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil warns that the government may consider further action.

Malaysia.- Communications minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil has expressed concern over Meta’s failure to remove online gambling and scam content from its platforms. He warned that the government may consider further action if cooperation does not improve.

The comments come after Fahmi met with Meta representatives at the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), attended by senior officials from the Royal Malaysian Police’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) and Commercial Crimes Investigation Department (CCID), Attorney General’s Chambers, Home Ministry, Finance Ministry, National Financial Crime Prevention Centre (NFCC), and National Cyber Security Agency (Nacsa).

He said: “The meeting focused on critical issues involving Meta platforms, particularly Facebook, including online gambling, scams, misinformation, 3R content (race, religion, royalty), and the sale of prohibited products such as drug-laced vape liquids.”

According to Fahmi, 168,774 Facebook content takedown requests have been submitted to Meta, representing 59 per cent of all content takedown requests across social media platforms. “Of that number, 120,127 were related to online gambling, but only 114,665 pieces of content were removed. As for scams, 37,722 takedown requests were made, and 36,918 were acted on. The remaining harmful content is still circulating on Facebook, which is highly concerning,” he said.

Fahmi also cited figures from the Commercial Crime Investigation Department (CCID), which showed that e-commerce fraud cases on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp from 2023 to August 2025 involved losses of over RM248m.

The minister added: “The Ministry of Communications, in collaboration with enforcement agencies, will step up monitoring efforts and consider further action if Meta fails to improve its cooperation.”

Last month, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said it had removed 321,012 gambling-related posts since January 2022. Deputy communications minister Teo Nie Ching said takedowns carried out under the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, also targeted 119,273 posts linked to fraud, 43,585 containing obscene material, 35,420 involving bullying or sexual harassment, and 38,818 flagged as false information.

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Communications minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil warns that the government may consider further action. Malaysia.- Communications minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil has expressed concern over Meta’s failure to remove online gambling and…