Big Tech is also likely to avoid negotiating such regulations with ASEAN as a bloc, given their “divide and conquer” approach to preserving profits and the money they have put into complying with laws in individual jurisdictions, the analysts said.
At a seminar on Malaysia’s efforts to make the internet safer last Friday (Jan 17), Malaysia’s Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching said a “key agenda” for her country’s ASEAN chairmanship is to engage the bloc and “unify” member states’ legal frameworks on internet regulation.
“And of course, we use it to actually negotiate with the platform provider. We believe that that can be more powerful,” she said at the seminar held at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.
While Teo noted Malaysia’s efforts to make platforms more accountable for online safety through its licensing requirement for all social media and internet messaging platforms with at least eight million registered users in the country, she believes “many more challenges” lie ahead.
“We are only a 34 million population, and it will be difficult for smaller countries to actually engage with the tech giants,” she added.
“But if ASEAN is able to act as a bloc, then we believe that our negotiation power will be much, much larger.”
Her comments came just a few weeks after Malaysia officially assumed the ASEAN chairmanship on Jan 1.
ASEAN comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Last August, in an interview with Malaysian news agency Bernama, Teo had urged ASEAN countries to unite in an effort to strengthen their negotiating power with social media giants and effectively combat the growing problem of online crime in the region.
While Teo had then hoped this issue would be on the “main agenda” at last year’s ASEAN Summit under the chairmanship of Laos, the chairman’s statement released on Oct 9 touched on online job scams and cybercrime but made no mention of social media platforms.
In recent months, Malaysia has embarked on a growing push to regulate Big Tech, starting with its class licensing requirement that kicked in on Jan 1.
It has also passed harsher penalties and wider powers in amending its Communications and Multimedia Act, attracting backlash from civil society groups, and is mulling the introduction of an Online Safety Act that critics fear could further empower the suppression of online content.
HOW MIGHT MALAYSIA GO ABOUT DOING IT?
Malaysia’s renewed effort to unite ASEAN members’ legal frameworks against Big Tech is “very ambitious, although not impossible”, said Shafizan Mohamed, an associate professor of communications at the International Islamic University Malaysia.
“I think as the ASEAN chair, it’s a good opportunity for Malaysia to take this lead, to create a momentum for a regional approach against Big Tech,” she told CNA.
Benjamin Loh, a senior lecturer in media and communication at Taylor’s University, said Malaysia has a “good shot” at succeeding in its efforts.
“While ASEAN often struggles to find common ground due to differences in governing styles and ideologies, there appears to be growing authoritarianism across the region which sees social media as a common threat,” he told CNA.
