KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 15 — The Ministry of Communications is examining the feasibility of revising the user threshold for social media platforms in the country to be deemed registered as Application Service Provider Class [ASP(c)] licence holders.

Effective January 1, all Internet messaging and social media service providers with eight million or more users in Malaysia are deemed registered as ASP(c) licence holders through the implementation of the Deeming Provision under Section 46A of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.

Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil said this move follows recent issues involving the AI tool “Grok,” which generated harmful and obscene content involving women and children, in violation of the law.

He noted that the user threshold might undergo some adjustments, and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has been tasked with studying the matter.

“We are in the process of evaluating this because while platforms like TikTok and Facebook are very popular in Malaysia, X might be less so. However, given the issues with Grok, the Ministry and MCMC see a justification to review the decision regarding the user count in Malaysia,” he said.

“I leave it to the MCMC to study what limit is appropriate and what actions need to be taken,” he told the media after the Lembah Pantai Level Early Schooling Assistance Handover Ceremony at Sekolah Kebangsaan Bukit Bandaraya here today.

On December 15, the MCMC announced that the user threshold was aimed at ensuring large-scale service providers offering Internet messaging and social media services to Malaysian users operate within the country’s legal and regulatory framework in an orderly, consistent, and effective manner.

However, X (formerly known as Twitter) reported that its user count in Malaysia has not reached the eight-million threshold.

On January 11, the MCMC ordered a temporary restriction on access to AI Grok for users in Malaysia, effective the same day, following repeated misuse to generate pornographic and explicit content.

Meanwhile, Fahmi said the government intends to implement age verification for social media platform users through three official government-issued documents: MyKad, passport, and MyDigital ID.

“We are looking into the Electronic Know Your Customer (EKYC) identity verification mechanism. We see that several countries have successfully implemented age limits, but the mechanism we will use will be different due to Malaysia’s uniqueness.

“We have mechanisms like MyKad, for example, which not all countries have. Since some of these aspects are unique to Malaysia, we will work on it according to our own mold,” he said. — Bernama