KUALA LUMPUR — The government will establish an Online Safety Committee as the highest monitoring body to address issues related to online safety, said Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said. 

She said Section 5 of the Online Safety Act 2025 (Act 866) provides for the formation of a committee to advise and make recommendations to the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), the regulatory agency responsible for online safety.

Azalina said the first protem meeting, which she will chair, will be held soon to set strategic priorities, coordinate the implementation direction, and ensure the committee functions as an effective platform for online safety policy coordination.

“Under Section 10 of this Act, the committee will advise and make recommendations covering the identification of harmful content and the prioritisation of such content.

“It will also determine methods for analysing and mitigating risks to users exposed to harmful content, conduct research related to harmful content, and promote best practices to ensure service providers are accountable,” she said during a ministerial briefing on the committee in the Special Chambers of the Dewan Rakyat today.

Azalina said the committee is crucial given that there are 33.1 million active social media users in Malaysia, representing 96 per cent of the population, including about 10.6 million users aged under 18. 

She said that the committee will serve as a channel for ongoing cooperation and consultations between the government and social media platform providers such as Meta, Google, TikTok, and X, ensuring that safety measures, content moderation and child protection are implemented effectively.