THIS has not been a good week for Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
On July 27, the Malaysian Communications & Multimedia Commission (MCMC) announced that social media and online messaging platforms with at least eight million users in Malaysia must apply for a licence from Aug 1.
Just a week later, Fahmi’s boss, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s tribute to the late Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh on social media was taken down by Facebook parent company, Meta Platforms Inc.
It turns out that what Anwar deems as a tribute to a fallen hero was taken as an act to condone dangerous individuals and organisations by Meta.
Fahmi, naturally, agreed with his boss and disagreed with Meta. He didn’t think that there was anything wrong with his boss’s post and demanded Meta to explain its insolence.
Despite Fahmi’s demands, I doubt if he was able to make Meta put up Anwar’s tribute to the late Ismail Haniyeh that it had taken down.
As a face-saving measure, Fahmi had supposedly gotten Meta to assure him that the live broadcast of the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin rally that was held at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil yesterday (Aug 4) would not only be aired without disruption but also not to be taken down.
“I have warned the Meta team and requested their cooperation. I want to see them walk the talk during the event,” he assured us to indicate that he was on top of things.
Despite his warnings, Meta blocked the live streams from the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin rally anyway.
Fahmi had earlier said that at a meeting scheduled for today (Aug 5) that Meta will provide explanations regarding the removal of Anwar’s social media posts on Ismail’s assassination.
Directive falls to deaf ears
After Meta blocked the live stream of the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin, it looks like in today’s meeting, Fahmi is also going to demand Meta to explain why it blocked the live stream of the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin rally.
Fahmi has already fired salvos over the meeting.
“Rafael Frankel (Meta’s director of public police, Southeast Asia), you come and see me. Tomorrow Meta’s team will hear from me about how they have failed,” he said at a media conference after last night’s (Aug 4) Free Palestine rally.
Despite the fire and brimstone in Fahmi’s tone, I have doubts as to how seriously we can take his words.
When he complained to Meta about Meta pulling down Anwar’s post, Meta did not put it up again. Just two days ago, he warned Meta to not block the Free Palestine rally’s live stream from Axiata Arena yet yesterday (Aug 4), they blocked it anyway.
Considering that Meta had already cursorily dismissed his complaints twice, how difficult will it be for the company to dismiss his complaints for the third time?
Just two days ago, Fahmi returned from Singapore to say that after meeting with all the social media platforms, he was confident that MCMC’s licensing requirement will go without a hitch.
“Based on my meetings and discussions, I am confident they have expressed their readiness, in principle, to be licensed,” Fahmi told reporters after officiating at the Kita-Untuk-Kita (K2K) Youth Conference on Saturday (Aug 3).
That just one day later on Sunday (Aug 4), Meta blocked the Free Palestine rally that his government had organised makes us wonder whether the social media platforms really did express their readiness to be licenced as Fahmi said.
Probable Meta’s response
I wonder what Meta is going to tell Fahmi at their meeting today. Will Meta say, “Minister Fahmi, you said that there was nothing wrong with the Free Palestine rally but we think there is something wrong with it, and our view supersedes yours.”
If Meta says that, I wonder how Fahmi is going to respond. How is he going to object to it when his own initiative – the MCMC social media licensing requirement – is made on the premise that “if you post something that you think is right but we think it is wrong, our view supersedes your view.”
After seeing two of his complaints dismissed cursorily by Meta in the span of less than a week, I have serious doubts as to whether Fahmi’s MCMC social media licensing requirement is going to be taken up by giant social media companies like Meta or X.
Meta has already shown that it couldn’t care much about what the Malaysian government wants – twice!
If Meta itself is behaving this way, imagine how X which is owned by Elon Musk is going to behave. If Elon doesn’t even listen to the American government’s view on regulating his platform, what chances does the Malaysian government have?
Let’s not forget, if Fahmi cannot control even one social media platform through the social media licensing requirement, the rest will almost certainly not follow suit.
If Fahmi, for example, asks all the social media platforms to take down a certain post but one platform refuses, that rebellious platform is going to attract many social media users to its site.
If all the other social media platforms see that they are losing users to their competitor by listening to Fahmi, I doubt they are going to listen to him for long.
Who has more muscles to flex?
Social media companies like Meta or Alphabet are giants. If they dismiss the MCMC’s directive, what is the Malaysian government going to do? Ban them? If the Malaysian government bans these social media companies, who is going to be hurt more – them or Malaysia bearing in mind their promised investments that run into billions of ringgit?
At the end of the day, I think that Fahmi will have to submit to the wishes of these giant international social media companies in the same way that Malaysians have to submit to his wishes.
Let’s face it that the MCMC’s social media licensing requirement is made on the principle of “might is right”. It is imposed on the social media companies under the premise that if they do not listen to MCMC, they are going to suffer.
Giant international social media companies who can make Malaysia suffer more than MCMC can make them suffer are likely going to be more interested in making Fahmi follow their wishes instead of following Fahmi’s wishes.
As Thucydides observed more than 2,000 years ago, “The strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must.”
This is especially true in the affairs of people who follow their self-interest more than their principles,
Between local social media companies or local social media users and MCMC, MCMC is stronger, so we have to suffer for its wishes.
But between international social media companies and Fahmi, it is doubtful as to whether Fahmi is stronger, hence international social media companies are unlikely to kowtow to his wishes. – Aug 5, 2024
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main image credit: Fahmi Fadzil/Facebook
