At Least 11 Malaysian Media Are Back On TikTok After Head-Scratching Ban

TikTok’s AI banned the accounts over coverage of a sexual abuse case, which it considered a violation of the platform’s community guidelines related to child sexual abuse material.

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A number of TikTok accounts belonging to Malaysian media outlets are back in business after being banned last week due to a community guideline violation.

The social platform’s artifical intelligince (AI) system had previously banned 23 accounts after the media outlets’s coverage of an alleged sexual assault of a young girl at a mosque in Selangor on 21 February.

TikTok’s AI moderation flagged the coverage as child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and made the accounts inaccessible to the public.

Among the accounts blocked were the Malaysian National News Agency (Bernama) and television news outlet Buletin TV3.

Eleven accounts have been unbanned

Checks by TRP today (5 March) found that at least 11 out of the 23 accounts have been unbanned, including:

Malay Mail
Buletin TV3
Sinar Harian
Buletin TV9
Harian Metro
Bernama Official
Kosmo
Kool101
Berita FMT
FMT Lifestyle
Majoriti Official

Earlier, Minister of Communications Fahmi Fadzil announced that the Malaysia Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will be reaching out to TikTok to schedule a meeting with the platform’s Chief Editor and editors of the affected accounts on 3 March.

Fahmi also insisted that TikTok needed to coordinate their AI system with Malaysia’s laws.

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