Lots and lots of people in Malaysia really like using TikTok. It’s a fun app that over 10 million Malaysians use every month. 

On TikTok, Malaysians can show off their creative side, make friends, and learn about cool things from other countries. 

Government officials were upset because TikTok made it easy for people to find and share content from people who disagreed with them about politics. 

Tech executives from Malaysia are saying that while TikTok is good in some ways, some people use it to share wrong information and say mean things. TikTok has rules about what can and cannot be posted, but they are trying to stop the bad stuff from being seen. 

The people in charge think that social media can only do some things because of how it works. They say that mean and hurtful things, like racism and bad pictures, are all over the place. 

But they said that one of the main reasons Fahmi uses social media, not just TikTok, is because the government can’t control what people say there. 

This person who works for the government says that if they don’t deal with problems on TikTok, it could make people forget about all the good things that TikTok does, like helping people buy and sell things and making money. 

The minister said that TikTok did not follow the rules in Malaysia very well. The people from TikTok said that this happened because they did not have someone from their company in Malaysia to help them. 

The person who represents TikTok said that they had more meetings with the government to show that they are serious about fixing the issues the government talked about. 

Fahmi said that TikTok is hiding or not showing content from Palestine. He asked people from TikTok to come to a meeting to discuss it. He also said that TikTok is feeling scared because they have to meet with their boss’s company. 

Fahmi talked about this after going to a rally to support Palestine. 

Tightening the screws

Minister Fahmi has been trying to control social media platforms since he started his job. 

The MCMC said they would take legal action against the company that owns Facebook but changed their mind after talking with them in July. 

MCMC got mad because Meta didn’t remove content that they thought was bad for many reasons that they thought were important. 

Tok as a bridge between tradition and modernity

TikTok is a place where old and new things come together. It’s like a mix of new trends and old traditions that people can enjoy and share with others. 

TikTok is helping young people in Malaysia connect with their grandparents and learn about their culture. 

They use a special hashtag called #GrandmaTok to share videos of themselves doing things with their grandmas, like cooking old-fashioned recipes, playing games from long ago, and listening to stories from the past. 

This has become popular, with over 100 million videos made using the hashtag.