Asia
Malaysia
Malaysia pairs a CMA-based social-media licensing/content-control regime (ASP-C, MCMC) with the new Online Safety Act 2025 and its June-2026 codes, which add genuine accountability duties (mandatory annual written risk assessments, a child-safety duty of care and age verification for 16+) enforced by MCMC fines up to RM10m, but no DSA-style public transparency instruments.
Scored against the DSA
Each obligation the DSA imposes on very large platforms, and whether Malaysia’s law requires the same. Cells cover DSA-style, user-protective transparency and accountability only.
- Required by law
- Partial / emerging
- No such obligation
- Undetermined
Transparency
Public ad libraryDSA Art. 39
No public ad-library; the Risk Mitigation Code requires advertiser verification, not a public archive.
Transparency reportsDSA Art. 15 / 24 / 42
ONSA requires published user-facing safety guidelines and ASP-C licensees submit biannual compliance reports to MCMC (regulator-facing, not necessarily public).
Source ↗Researcher data accessDSA Art. 40
No researcher data-access mandate.
Reach disclosureDSA Art. 24(2)
No public reach-disclosure duty; the 8M-user figure is a licensing threshold.
Accountability
Systemic risk assessmentDSA Art. 34–35
The Risk Mitigation Code (in force June 2026) requires licensed providers to conduct annual written harmful-content risk assessments and keep records.
Source ↗Independent auditDSA Art. 37
No external audit mandate; obligations are internal risk-assessment and record-keeping.
Algorithmic transparencyDSA Art. 27 / 38
No recommender-transparency duty; ONSA only requires personalised recommendation systems be controlled suitably for child users.
Regulator + penaltiesDSA Art. 49–52, 74
MCMC can impose ONSA penalties up to RM10,000,000 for code non-compliance, plus CMA/ASP-C fines and licence revocation.
Source ↗
Child protection
No profiling ads to minorsDSA Art. 26(3) / 28
No ban on targeted advertising to minors.
Age assuranceBeyond the DSA
The Child Protection Code (in force June 2026) requires platforms with 8M+ users to verify ages against government records so only 16+ may register.
Source ↗Child-safety duty of careDSA Art. 28
ONSA imposes a duty of care that services be safe by design and default for children, operationalised by the Child Protection and Risk Mitigation Codes.
Source ↗
On the horizon
What's being debated
Online Safety Act 2024/2025 + social-media class licensing
A risk-based duty of care requiring platforms to publish an Online Safety Plan and safety guidelines and enable reporting, plus an MCMC class-licence regime for platforms with 8M+ users.
Latest: The Online Safety Act came into force 1 January 2026; MCMC deemed major platforms licensed from 2026, with penalties up to RM10M. source ↗
Compare every jurisdiction
Malaysia is one of 30 non-EU jurisdictions we scored against the DSA. See them all side by side.