Madani government 1 – 1 Meta

If Meta obliges the Madani government and applies for the licence, then we can see it as a decisive victory on behalf of the Madani government.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy

On July 27, the MCMC announced that social media and online messaging platforms with at least eight million users in Malaysia must apply for a licence from August 1.

Just a week later, Fahmi’s boss, Anwar Ibrahim’s tribute to the late Ismail Haniyeh on social media was taken down by Meta.

The removal of the posts was accompanied by the caption, “Dangerous individuals and organisations.”

Turns out, what Anwar deems as a tribute to a fallen hero was taken as an act to condone dangerous individuals and organisations by Meta.

Fahmi, naturally, didn’t think that there was anything wrong with Anwar’s post and demanded Meta to explain its insolence.

Fahmi also said that he had gotten Meta to assure him that the live broadcast of the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin rally that was to be held at Axiata Arena, Bukit Jalil on Sunday (Aug 4) will not be taken down.

“I have warned the Meta team and requested their cooperation. I want to see them walk the talk during the event,” he assured us, to indicate that he was on top of things.

Despite his warnings, Meta blocked the live streams from the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin rally anyway.

Fahmi had earlier scheduled a meeting the next day (Aug 5), to get  Meta to provide an explanation regarding the removal of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s social media posts on the assassination of Hamas Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh.

After Meta blocked the live stream of the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin, it looks like in the meeting that Fahmi had with Meta, he had also probably demanded that  Meta explain why it blocked the live stream of the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin rally.

Fahmi fired salvos right after the Himpunan Pembebasan Palestin was over.

Rafael Frankel (Director of Public Police, South East Asia, Meta) , you come and see me. Tomorrow Meta’s team will hear from me about how they have failed,” he said at a press conference after the rally.

So how did the meeting go?

Well, it looks like the meeting was a win for the Madani government.

According to Reuters, Meta has apologised for the removal of content from Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s Facebook and Instagram accounts related to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

“We apologise for an operational error where content from the Prime Minister’s Facebook and Instagram Pages was removed, and the content has since been restored with the correct newsworthy label,” a Meta spokesperson said.

“The post is allowed for public awareness. In some cases, we allow content which would otherwise go against our Community Standards,” a note provided by Meta now accompanies Anwar’s restored posts.

In other words, although Meta still believes that Anwar’s post is a violation of its community guidelines, it restored the post anyway in deference to the Madani government’s wishes.

This reversal by Meta, should thus be rightfully taken as a sign victory for Anwar and the Madani government.

Social media companies like Meta are not weak entities. They are, in fact, some of the most powerful entities in the world today not only in terms of revenue, but in terms of ability to change the world.

That the Madani government was able to force Meta to restore Anwar’s post, despite the post being in violation of Meta’s community guidelines, is a victory, can be seen from the fact that the report of Meta’s reversal received widespread media coverage in Arab and Arabic-speaking countries.

The report is published among others through the platforms masrawy.com and aawsat.com based in Egypt, alroya.com (Oman), sarayanews.com (Jordan), alalam.ir (Iran), alquds.co.uk and alghad.ty (UK), aljazeera.net, alaraby.com (Qatar) and alwatannews.com (Bahrain).

Considering everything, I would say that the score line between the Madani government and Meta now stands at 1-1, with the advantage being with the Madani government, because between Meta and the Madani government, it is the Madani government that is the underdog.

We will find out who is the final victor in the quarrel between Meta and the Madani government, probably in a few more weeks and months, depending on how Meta responds to the Madani government’s requirement that all social media platforms apply for licence in the next 5 months before they are allowed to operate in Malaysia.

If Meta obliges the Madani government and applies for the licence, then we can see it as a decisive victory on behalf of the Madani government.

Now some of you might be thinking, “why are you making this sound like it is an issue about winning or losing, instead of making it about right or wrong,” well the reason is because this conflict between Meta and the Madani government has more to do with power than principles.

When an issue is fought about principles, then there will be a side that is good and right and another that is wrong and evil.

When an issue is fought merely to show who is more powerful than the other, the question of right and wrong, good or evil, doesn’t arise.

The only question that arises is in regards to who won and who lost.

I do not see the quarrel between Meta and Madani government as a battle between good and evil, because both Meta and the Madani government essentially want the same thing , which is the power to say “if you think that there is nothing wrong with your content, but we think there is something wrong with your content, our views supersede yours.”

Because of that, the only important thing we have to note about their quarrel is in regards to who won and who lost.