Malaysia calls for Meta to control “undesirable” content. Credit: BUTENKOV ALEKSEI.

Malaysia said it will pursue legal action against Meta for failing to take off “undesirable” posts from Meta-owned Facebook.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement that Facebook has been “plagued by” undesirable content relating to defamation, impersonation, online gambling and scam advertisements, Reuters reported.

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Since its coming to power in November, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s administration has pledged to curb what it calls provocative content that addresses race or religion.

The tacking of this issue follows the country’s 2022 national election, which was fraught with ethnic tensions.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission said in a statement that Meta had failed to take adequate action regardless of requests to remove harmful content.

The Commission added legal action was necessary to push for accountability for cybersecurity.

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This is not the first time Meta has faced a lawsuit for promoting racially charged content.

In 2021, the Rohingya Muslim community sued Facebook for $200bn over the mass genocide of its people by the Myanmar government.

Legal action launched in the US and the UK argued that Facebook’s algorithms amplified negative reactions against the Rohingya people.

The platform promoted disinformation, allowing Myanmar officials to open fake accounts.

Meta’s response to the fallout from its promotion of negative content was to create the “Facebook content oversight board” in May 2020.

In 2021, Facebook was revealed to have repeatedly prioritised profit over clamping down on hate speech and misinformation, after an investigation by the Wall Street Journal revealed leaked documents by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen.