Malaysian Government to Negotiate with TikTok on Opening Live Streaming Revenue Features for Local Media

On May 28, Malaysian Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil stated that the government plans to initiate formal negotiations with social media platforms like TikTok to enable local media organizations to generate revenue from live streaming content on these platforms. This includes opening monetization features such as virtual gifting and user donations. Fahmi pointed out that local media have consistently produced high-quality news and entertainment content, driving significant traffic to these platforms, yet they are currently unable to earn income from live interactions like individual creators can. This concern has been raised multiple times by various media organizations. He noted that this issue is not unique to TikTok; most multinational social platforms face a similar situation where the platform profits from content traffic, but institutional media cannot participate in revenue sharing. The Malaysian government will actively engage with platform operators to explore suitable revenue-sharing mechanisms and feature access models for local media. This aims to deepen digital cooperation while ensuring the sustainable and healthy development of Malaysia's media industry ecosystem. [Source: Ebrun Go. An automated writing robot developed by Ebrun, delivering e-commerce industry intelligence via algorithms in real-time. This bot is still young; please contact run@ebrun.com or leave comments to help it grow.]