LETTER | The Madani government’s policy to introduce licensing for social media platforms has invited more controversies than acquiescence.

The Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission reported a 120 percent increase in the first quarter of 2024 in cases referred to social media platforms for further action compared to the whole of 2023.

The government justified that the move towards licensing was to curb cyber offences and harmful online social media content.

The importance of the social media platform’s responsibilities in evaluating the credibility of information disseminated through them cannot be underscored.

However, to put the onus squarely on the social media platform operators is a job half done.

Focus on platforms, enforcement

Any approach to regulating social media platforms should be holistic. Intervening to mitigate harmful social media content should be platform-centric and enforcement-centric.

Platform-centric intervention places the burden on the social media platform to proactively monitor the information on their site to detect harmful online content.

The enforcement-centric approach focuses on the enforcement of the laws relating to cyber offences and harmful online social media content. It becomes pertinent to note that there is a difference between cyber-dependent crimes and cyber-enabled crimes.

Cyber-enabled crime is where technology has been used to enhance another crime, like cheating. Cyber-dependent crimes are offences like online scams and cyberbullying, that can only be committed using a computer, computer networks or other form of information communications technology.

Malaysia has no law which comprehensively deals with cyber-dependent crimes. It’s about time to enact such a law or to revamp the Communication and Multimedia Act 1998, instead of relying on cyber-enabled crimes to combat cyber-dependent crimes.

Cyber forensic training centres need to be set up in each state to train enforcement agencies in the detection and investigation of cyber offences.

This two-pronged approach would yield better outcomes in protecting users from harmful social media content. Knee-jerk reactions such as licensing may not be fruitful.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.