TLDR Malaysia gave Facebook a final warning to remove illegal gambling ads or face legal action Over 271,000 takedown requests were sent to Facebook from January to May 2026 81% of all illegal gambling content in Malaysia was found on Facebook Malaysians lost over $640 million to scams in 2025 including gambling-related fraud Malaysia plans to form a new committee involving regulators, banks, and law enforcement to fight online scams
Malaysia is putting pressure on Meta to clean up illegal gambling advertisements and scam content on Facebook. Communications minister Fahmi Fadzil said the government is prepared to take legal action if the platform does not cooperate.
Fadzil made the comments during the Inter-Agency Retreat on Combating Online Scam. He described it as a final warning to the company.
Any legal case would be handled by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission. The minister said the volume of illegal content on the platform has reached a level that can no longer be ignored.
Hundreds of Thousands of Takedown Requests Filed
Between January 1, 2026, and May 23, 2026, Malaysian authorities sent 271,472 takedown requests to Facebook. More than 91% of those requests were tied to scams and illegal gambling operations.
According to the government, 81% of all illegal gambling content identified in the country appeared on Facebook. That figure has made the platform a central focus of Malaysia’s enforcement efforts.
The sheer number of requests shows how widespread the problem has become. Authorities say the content continues to circulate despite repeated efforts to flag it.
Facebook has not publicly responded to the latest demands from the Malaysian government. It is unclear how many of the takedown requests have been fulfilled.
The situation mirrors tensions seen in other countries where governments have clashed with social media companies over content