AFP, Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia has ordered TikTok to take immediate steps to improve how it regulates harmful content following the circulation of posts deemed “grossly offensive” to the country’s royals, the communications regulator said yesterday.

The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) said the social media platform owned by China-based ByteDance failed to “take sufficient and timely action” on a fake account that carried the allegedly defamatory posts against Sultan Ibrahim, the country’s current king.

The content included material deemed “grossly offensive, false, menacing and insulting in nature, including AI-generated videos and manipulated images”, the regulator said.

“MCMC take serious view of any misuse of online platforms to disseminate content that is grossly offensive, false, menacing or detrimental to public order, particularly where it involves the institution of the king and the Malay rulers,” it said in a statement.