PUTRAJAYA – The Communications Ministry has guaranteed that obtaining a licence for social media platforms to operate in Malaysia will be a straightforward process.
Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil said that the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has indicated that the licensing procedure should be completed within three to five working days, Bernama reported.
He mentioned that the ministry anticipates receiving licensing applications from social media platform providers around October or November this year.
“We want to reassure social media platform providers that the process for obtaining a ‘Class Licence’ is much simpler than that of an ‘Individual Licence’.
“While an ‘Individual Licence’ might take several months to process, the MCMC has confirmed that a ‘Class Licence’ will be processed within three to five working days,” he said during a press conference here today.
The regulatory framework for social media services, which was introduced on August 1 and will come into effect next year, does not apply to individual users of these platforms.
On July 27, the MCMC announced that all social media and Internet messaging services with at least eight million registered users in Malaysia must apply for a Class Licence for the Provision of Application Services under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 (Act 588).
In addition, Fahmi mentioned that his ministry is actively engaging with relevant parties regarding the licensing of social media services and the development of a code of conduct for social media platforms.
“To formulate the code of conduct, discussions will be held with all social media platforms, as well as stakeholders such as non-governmental organisations, academics, and various other parties.
“We aim to complete this by the end of October. Concurrently, we will continue to engage with social media platforms to ensure they fully understand the licensing process,” he added.
When asked about the ban on the use of Telegram among civil servants in the Netherlands, he said that the government had not yet made any decision to prohibit civil servants from using the application.
He added that issues related to the security of civil servants were managed by the Office of the Chief Government Security Officer of Malaysia (CGSO).
“We have not issued any directive; typically, security aspects are handled by CGSO, but at this time, we have not received any such directive,” he said.
Media reports have stated that the Amsterdam City Council had urged cabinet members and senior staff to stop using the Telegram app due to concerns over “criminal activities within the app and the risk of espionage.” – August 21, 2024