Over 10,000 fake accounts using royal identities taken down – Fahmi
KUALA LUMPUR: More than 10,000 fake accounts misusing the identities of royals including the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Raja Permaisuri Agong have been taken down since the beginning of this year, said Communications Minister Datuk Fahmi Fadzil.
He said the action was carried out by the social media platform as a result of continuous monitoring by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) as well as reports made by various parties for the period from January 1 to March 28.
“Yesterday, I presented to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong some rather worrying matters. Based on the findings from MCMC, more than 10,000 fake accounts misusing the identities of either the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, the Raja Permaisuri Agong, or royal relatives have been revealed.
“This trend is not decreasing. Almost every day, MCMC informs that the number of fake accounts using the names of, among others, the Sultan of Pahang, abusing the identity of the Tengku Mahkota of Pahang, the Regent Sultan of Johor Tunku Mahkota Ismail, is too high,” he said after officiating the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) Digital Broadcasting Symposium 2026 (DBS 2026) here, today.
He said this when asked to comment on his meeting to present the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2025 (ONSA) to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Ibrahim at Istana Bukit Tunku, yesterday.
Fahmi said the Yang di-Pertuan Agong also ordered the Ministry of Communications and MCMC to take swift and firm action, including using ONSA to ensure social media platforms comply with national laws.
This step, he said, is important to prevent the identity of the royal family from being used for fraudulent purposes.
“Unfortunately, at this time, Meta is very, very slow. They are not taking this issue seriously at all and this is what has caused MCMC and myself to feel very disappointed, but we will firmly implement ONSA.
“At this time, there are several subsidiary instruments that need to be completed and gazetted by the Attorney General’s Chambers and we expect that within the next few weeks if not months, we will be able to begin implementing them,” he said.
Apart from that, Fahmi said a meeting with the National Fraud Response Centre (NSRC) would be held in the near future to strengthen efforts to tackle fraud crimes involving artificial intelligence (AI) technology, including AI deepfake fraud.
He said the meeting would bring together various agencies including the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM), the National Financial Crimes Prevention Centre (NFCC), MCMC, the Attorney General’s Chambers and other related agencies.
— BERNAMA
