ANKARA

Malaysia's Communication Ministry has summoned the top management of Chinese social media company TikTok over its alleged delays in tackling fake news on its platform, state media reported on Tuesday.

Communication Minister Fahmi Fadzil said TikTok has been "too slow" in responding to police requests for help in investigations, state-run Bernama news agency reported.

Fahmi cited a recent case where a man had falsely claimed on TikTok to be a pathologist involved in an investigation into the high-profile death of a Malaysian teenager.

The TikTok officials have been summoned on Thursday.

"TikTok was very slow in providing information to PDRM (Malaysian police), to the point that I had to call TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew to inform him, 'this is a crime that's being committed and your organisation is very slow'.”

"We cannot allow such an attitude," Fahmi added.

Aside from TikTok, Fahmi said, Meta Platforms Inc (Meta), the parent company of US social media company Facebook, will also be summoned to explain the spread of "immoral" content on its platform.

He said that the dissemination of pedophilia-related content is among the identified issues, involving an online group called 'Geng Budak Sekolah', which went viral on WhatsApp and Facebook.

"We see these platforms are not taking the matter seriously, so the dialogue process will continue, and we will stress that Malaysian law applies to them and they must comply. We will summon every platform,” he said.

Fahmi said the government is studying the need to make identity verification mandatory for all sales transactions on social media platforms.

The move, he added, aims to contain misuse of fake accounts often linked to fraud, online gambling ads and deepfake content.

Separately, Fahmi said the Kuala Lumpur Declaration on the Safe and Responsible Use of Social Media Platforms for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will be formally adopted during the bloc’s 47th summit in October.

*Writing by Aamir Latif