KUALA LUMPUR, July 22 — ASEAN member states are developing guidelines on the safe use of social media to address the growing threat posed by deepfake content and the spread of misinformation through artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
ASEAN Secretariat official in Jakarta Hazremi Hamid said the guidelines would focus on procedures for handling inaccurate information while strengthening digital literacy among the public.
“In addition, the ASEAN Digital Economy Framework Agreement (DEFA) will provide the basic provisions needed to enhance online safety across all member states.
“Member countries must also intensify efforts to raise public awareness and provide training so that people are better able to distinguish between images and content generated using AI,” he said.
He was speaking to reporters after participating in a forum on the rapid development of AI at the International Regulators Conference (IRC) 2026 at the Shangri-La Hotel yesterday afternoon.
According to Hazremi, member states must also ensure that AI-generated content is clearly labelled to avoid confusion and reduce the risk of misinformation.
He said Malaysia, through the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC), is spearheading the implementation of digital safety guidelines at the ASEAN level as part of efforts to encourage safer and more responsible use of social media.
Commenting on Malaysia’s move to ban social media use by individuals under the age of 16, Hazremi described the initiative as a reasonable step towards protecting young users.
“The measure is an important initiative towards creating a safer, more responsible and conducive social media environment for all users,” he said.Earlier, the government gave social media operators time to implement the enforcement of the minimum age requirement of 16 for social media account ownership, which came into effect on June 1.
Communications Minister Datuk Seri Fahmi Fadzil said the flexibility was granted following requests from the platform operators for an appropriate implementation period.
