Meta faces Malaysia action over fake royal accounts

Malaysia is weighing action against Meta for failing to curb fake accounts impersonating members of the country’s royal households, said Fahmi Fadzil, communications minister.

Fahmi said complaints and ministry monitoring flagged more than 15,000 fake accounts using the names of 26 royal family members between January and May.

Most of the accounts were found on Facebook, while others appeared on Instagram and TikTok. Fahmi said he had reprimanded Meta and was close to taking legal action.

Officials also sought the removal of more than 230,000 posts across platforms, with over 90% tied to online gambling and scams.

Fahmi said the Online Safety Act allows fines of up to 1 million ringgit (US$255,000) plus daily penalties of 100,000 ringgit (US$26,000) for continuing offences.

🔗 Source: Bloomberg

🧠 Food for thought

Implications, context, and why it matters.

Meta faces a wider set of rules

Possible action against Meta sits within a wider move away from voluntary moderation toward legal duties under the Online Safety Act 2025 1.
The law works alongside the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, a Malaysian law long used to prosecute people over online posts deemed offensive, including posts about royalty 2.
Since January 1, social media platforms with more than eight million Malaysian users count as licensed entities, which closes a regulatory gap and gives the government more power to act 3.
Fines are only one layer of the penalty system. Officials have cited penalties under the Online Safety Act of up to 1 million ringgit (US$255,000), plus 100,000 ringgit (US$26,000) a day for continuing offences. Other rules and proposals have put fines as high as 10 million ringgit (US$2.55 million) on platforms that fail to curb fraud or harmful content 4.

Malaysia’s rules may spread across Southeast Asia

Malaysia’s approach to automatically licensing large platforms could become a model for other Southeast Asian governments that want more control over big technology platforms without relying on voluntary cooperation 5.
Global technology companies now have to treat Malaysia as its own regulatory market. That means country-specific rules for topics such as politics or religion, which authorities police closely 2.
High financial penalties and tight deadlines raise costs and legal risk for platforms, which changes the business case for operating in Malaysia 1.
The trend could deepen the split in online rules. Platforms may have to drop one global standard for a patchwork of national rules.