PUTRAJAYA — Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil today took a swipe at Facebook, describing the platform as the “most guilty” among social media platforms when it comes to enabling online gambling and scams in Malaysia.

Fahmi said Facebook accounted for 78 per cent of online gambling content identified by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for removal between January 1 and August 17 this year.

“For the platform that is the most guilty, the most problematic in terms of online gambling, the most guilty is Facebook. Facebook is the most guilty, with the most use of fake accounts,” he said during his speech at the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between MCMC and the Immigration Department of Malaysia (JIM) here.

In a sarcastic remark, Fahmi said there should be an annual award for the social media platform that “commits the most sins” against Malaysians.

“So the perpetrator of the sin, or the party that enables the most scams, is Facebook. We should have an award every year for which platform commits the most sins against the people of Malaysia,” he said.

Fahmi said MCMC had sought the removal of 470,593 pieces of harmful content between January 1 and August 17, with platforms complying with 93 per cent of the requests, involving 436,661 pieces of content.

Of the content flagged for removal, 64 per cent involved online gambling while 27 per cent was related to scams.