We reported previously that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) is considering taking action against Telegram, which may include blocking the platform and the government is urging the messaging platform to come out and cooperate if they don’t want any actions to be taken against them. So, after quite some time, Telegram has finally agreed to do so.
FMT reports that today, officials from the Ministry of Communications and Digital (KKD), along with the MCMC, are set to meet representatives of the messaging platform Telegram. This meeting comes after numerous requests were made to address concerns related to user safety. Previously, the ministry had reached out to Telegram several times since January, but the company had been uncooperative.
The ministry received multiple complaints regarding public safety issues on the platform, including the sale of drugs, scams, and pornography. Zulkarnain Mohd Yasin, the chief compliance officer of MCMC said that, cyber crime activities on Telegram have significantly increased and now rank among the top five, whereas they were previously in the 11th position between 2019 and 2020.
Besides that, in response to preventing personal data theft and fraudulent activities, Minister Fahmi Fadzil said that amendments to the Personal Data Protection Act are planned for December or March. He added that most instances of fraud occur when personal data is stolen due to negligence or cybersecurity vulnerabilities in handling such data.
