The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) has been seriously busy dealing with AI misuse lately. Since 2024, the regulator has fielded nearly 12,500 complaints about AI misuse, leading to the removal of over 11,600 pieces of fake or deepfake content.
Deepfakes are artificially-generated media (audio, images, or video) or heavily modified using AI to make a real person appear to say or do things they never actually did.
According to Deputy Communications Minister Teo Nie Ching, the dodgy material was scrubbed after the MCMC flagged it directly to social media platforms.
The numbers show that deepfakes are exploding in popularity, and not in a good way. Complaints have skyrocketed more than eightfold over the last couple of years, jumping from 917 back in 2024 to 3,612 in 2025, and hitting a massive 7,967 by mid-June of this year.
To tackle this massive surge, the government is leaning on the Risk Mitigation Code under its Online Safety Act 2025. This basically means licensed social media platforms are legally required to step up and implement proper risk mitigation measures, especially when it comes to AI-generated content.
Teo mentioned that the MCMC is already checking in with these platforms to ensure they are actually doing their homework and meeting these new obligations.
On top of keeping the platforms in check, the MCMC is playing a big role behind the scenes to help law enforcement. They are providing technical support, profiling info, and digital forensics, all while actively monitoring social media to catch malicious AI content before it does too much damage.