The Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has revealed that only four companies have applied for the social media license in Malaysia.

According to MCMC, Tencent (who owns WeChat) was the first to be granted a license.

The second was ByteDance (who owns TikTok).

The third (and still pending application) is Telegram.

The fourth (and still pending application) is Meta (who owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp).

Meanwhile, other major social media companies such as X (Twitter) and Google (who owns YouTube and others) have yet to apply. X claims that Malaysian X users don’t reach the prerequisite eight (8) million for them to apply while Google has brought up concerns about whether YouTube should be considered as a “social media”.

It’s currently unclear what will happen or what actions the MCMC will take if social media like X and YouTube don’t apply or don’t have licenses to operate in Malaysia.

MCMC claims that the license rules and regulations will only apply to the companies who own the social media, and that Malaysian users won’t be affected or worry about having action taken against them.

Hopefully, matters will be resolved soon.

KENYATAAN MEDIA

EMPAT PENYEDIA PERKHIDMATAN PESANAN INTERNET DAN MEDIA SOSIAL MEMOHON LESEN UNTUK BEROPERASI DI MALAYSIA.#MCMC pic.twitter.com/LKhBt8psCN

— MCMC (@MCMC_RASMI) January 1, 2025