KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 2 — The decision to remove Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s social media posts relating to the assassination of Hamas' Political Bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh was probably done by those at the higher levels of Meta Platforms Inc. and not by their team in Southeast Asia, said Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil.
In a series of discussions he had with the management of Meta at the Southeast Asia level so far, they hinted that they were not the ones who removed the Prime Minister’s posts from Facebook and Instagram.
“There is a possibility that it involved a higher-level decision. The Meta team in the region is also confused as to why it happened, so I do not blame them because this is not an action on their part. So, we are waiting for further explanation.
“I was made to understand that a Meta delegation will come to Kuala Lumpur next week to explain the matter, so we will give them until then,” he told the press after joining the Prime Minister and some 3,000 congregants in performing Friday prayers and the absentee funeral prayer for Ismail at Masjid Negara today.
Also present were Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department (Religious Affairs) Datuk Mohd Na'im Mokhtar, and Chief of Defence Forces General Tan Sri Mohammad Ab Rahman.
Fahmi added that the removal of social media posts by Meta, like what happened to the Prime Minister, should not have happened to anybody.
“It is quite funny because the United States is talking about freedom of expression and freedom of speech. So in Meta’s case, I think they really have to practice what they preach. Otherwise, it is just hypocrisy,” he said.
Ismail, who was also the former prime minister of Palestine, was reported to have been killed in an airstrike that targeted his residence in Tehran, Iran, in the early hours of Wednesday (July 31).
He was in the country to attend the inauguration of Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
— Bernama
