Request Removal: 1,862 Times

In the second half of 2023, Malaysia sent TikTok 1,862 content removal requests covering 6,231 individual items.

That was the highest figure in Asia. ^1,2

Malaysia never banned TikTok.

Both facts are true simultaneously — and together they reveal a control structure more nuanced than an outright ban: rather than shutting the platform down, the state enters it and manages what happens inside.

An Inherited Toolkit#

Malaysia's legal instruments for restricting free expression were not invented by any single government. They follow a clear line of succession.

The Internal Security Act (ISA, 1960) was a continuation of the Emergency Regulations that the British colonial government enacted in 1948, permitting detention without trial for anyone deemed a security threat. In 2012 the Najib administration formally repealed the ISA — but passed the Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) the same year, preserving detention without trial in specified circumstances.

The Sedition Act (1948) remains in force to this day. ^3,4

In 1998 the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) came into effect. Section 233 made "offensive, indecent, or menacing" content a criminal offence, carrying a maximum fine of RM50,000, one year's imprisonment, or both. ^3,4

This toolkit, rooted in the colonial logic of governance-without-accountability, has been inherited by every successive government and wielded with varying degrees of intensity.

For a full historical account of how the British Resident system transmitted the logic of ruling without having to explain oneself to the ruled — and how that logic survived independence — see The Advice That Must Be Followed on this site.

Pakatan Harapan's Two Records#

In 2018, Pakatan Harapan won the general election on a platform that included abolishing the Sedition Act. Malaysia's ranking in RSF's Press Freedom Index rose from 145 in 2018 to 101 in 2020 — a gain of more than forty places.

Then history gave the coalition a second term in government: in 2022, Anwar Ibrahim became Prime Minister.

Between June and July 2023, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) ordered platforms to block five media websites that leaned toward the opposition. In October 2023, Australian editor Kean Wong was arrested in Kuala Lumpur and investigated under the Sedition Act. ^5,6

Malaysia's RSF ranking: 107 in 2024 (down six places from 2020), recovering to 88 in 2025, then sliding back to 95 in 2026. ^7,5

"Two starkly different records" is the single-narrative trap most worth avoiding when analysing the PH government: the 2018–2020 term and the 2022-to-present term are two distinct periods in office, and media policy has not followed a single trajectory.

The Two-Sided 2024 Amendment#

In 2024, Parliament passed amendments to the CMA. The new bill did two things that appeared to pull in opposite directions: ^3,4

First, it raised the criminal threshold in Section 233 from "offensive" to "extremely offensive" (jelik) — narrowing the scope for criminal prosecution.

Second, it simultaneously expanded MCMC's administrative censorship powers — allowing MCMC to direct platforms to remove content without first obtaining a court order.

The first looks like liberalisation; the second effectively transfers control away from the judiciary and into the hands of a regulatory body. The amendment took effect on 7 February 2025. ^8,3

From January 2022 to July 2025, MCMC ordered platforms to remove: 37,845 items of false information, 7,846 items of "3R-sensitive content" (race, religion, royalty), and 82,076 items deemed immoral. ^8,7

What 1,862 Requests Actually Mean#

A removal request is not a ban, but it is a more persistent control mechanism: the platform stays open, users remain, content keeps flowing — but whenever a piece of content is flagged as problematic, the government has a channel to have it dealt with.

TikTok received 51,638 removal requests from Malaysia in Q1 2024, substantially higher than the 6,231 items in the second half of 2023. ^2,1

The numbers do not reveal which content was removed, the grounds for removal, or how many requests were refused. TikTok's transparency report lists the number of requests but does not disclose rejection rates.

"Most requests" alone does not establish the most severe suppression — it may equally indicate a highly responsive platform or a government that makes active use of available channels. But combined with the contemporaneous record of media-outlet blocks and an editor's arrest, the context the numbers provide is unambiguous.

Related debates and historical chapters: Debate Hall · The Advice That Must Be Followed