Malaysia’s internet regulator has issued a statutory demand to TikTok on Thursday after a fake account allegedly used artificial intelligence to insult the country’s king, including posts falsely claiming he ate pork and manipulated images pairing his face with animal bodies.
The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said in a statement that TikTok had failed to take “sufficient and timely action” against offensive and defamatory content targeting the country’s royal institution.
The account, which purported to be linked to King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar, carried material that was “grossly offensive, false, menacing and insulting in nature”, including AI-generated videos and manipulated images, MCMC said.
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It said the posts could breach Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998, as well as other Malaysian penal laws.
The MCMC demand also requires TikTok to take immediate remedial steps, strengthen content moderation and provide a formal explanation for its moderation failures.
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