Malaysia's PM Anwar Accepts Meta's Apology

PUTRAJAYA, Aug 6 (Bernama) -- Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has accepted an apology from Meta Platforms Inc (Meta) for removing his recent posts related to the Palestinian issue, particularly on the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, from Facebook and Instagram.

Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, who is also Unity Government’s spokesman, said it was also hoped that such removal of a prime minister’s social media posts by Meta, would not recur.

“He (Anwar) told me that his friends, including those in the Middle East, have read the news (about the post's removal), meaning that it has gone global. Yes, PM has accepted the apology, but at the same time, we (government) also hope that such incident will not recur.

“During our meeting yesterday (Monday), I also told Meta to inform the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), from time to time, about the change in their community guidelines, if any,” Fahmi told reporters after attending the Communications Ministry’s monthly assembly here today.

Meanwhile, Fahmi said he was informed that the community guidelines of social media platforms are always changing, especially on geopolitical issues, but the matter was sometimes communicated and sometimes not.

Citing an example, he said the word “syahid” or martyr was not allowed in Meta platforms before, but after the meeting yesterday, such words like martyr are now allowed.

“I have also asked Meta to make sure that our Prime Minister be accorded equal treatment as other heads of governments...there should not be a double standard in this matter,” he said.

Yesterday, the Media and Strategic Communications Division of the PMO summoned Meta to explain its removal of content related to the Palestinian issue from the Prime Minister’s social media platforms.

The PMO also expressed strong disapproval of Meta's decision to delete posts from the Prime Minister offering condolences and tributes to Haniyeh. The posts were removed from Facebook and Instagram on May 14 and July 30.

Meanwhile, the report of Meta apologising to the Prime Minister has 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).

"We apologise for the operational error in which the posts from the prime minister's Facebook and Instagram accounts were taken down. The posts have been restored with the correct news label," a Meta spokesperson told Reuters in response to questions via email.
-- BERNAMA