MCMC said in a joint statement with the police that the number marked a sharp increase from the 42,904 cases reported throughout last year.

The commission said that a meeting between TikTok and Meta and communications minister Fahmi Fadzil had seen the two social media platform providers asked to boost their monitoring efforts following the increase in harmful content.

“The social media platform providers have also been asked to effectively handle 3R (race, religion, and royalty) content based on platform guidelines and Malaysian laws.

“TikTok and Meta have been urged to curb content containing coordinated inauthentic behaviour, and monitor and act immediately against harmful content such as scams and illegal online gambling,” it said.

“Coordinated inauthentic behaviour” is defined by Meta’s Transparency Centre as the use of multiple Facebook or Instagram assets, working in concert to engage in “inauthentic behaviour” which generally aims to harass, mislead, or evade platform enforcement actions.

Other matters discussed at the meeting included the improvement of online safety, especially in age verification to curb access by children under 13 years old, as well as a review of the algorithms used to detect guideline violations.

Fahmi chaired the meeting with TikTok and Meta yesterday in a bid to ensure that platform providers moderate content in a more “holistic and proactive” manner.

The meeting at the MCMC headquarters in Cyberjaya was also attended by deputy communications minister Teo Nie Ching and MCMC chairman Salim Fateh Din.